Trouble with 32 bit Gtk app on 64 bit system - no or misleading error msgs

[Evan]

On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 3:10 AM, Christopher Chan
<christopher.chan at bradbury.edu.hk> wrote:
>
> > I don't mean to be a "[citation needed] troll", but I've honestly never
> > heard anything suggesting this before. Would you mind explaining how
> > RPMs handle 32/64 better than DEBs? My understanding was that as long as
> > you installed ia32-libs then you shouldn't have to do anything else; the
> > software having problems in this thread is some sort of anomaly.
> >
>
> It probably is not rpm being better than deb. But right now most 32-bit
> library packages cannot just be installed on a 64-bit installation.
> 32-bit packages will take over /usr/lib 'namespace' in a 64-bit
> installation when they should be stuffing themselves under /usr/lib32.
> It is as if you need to have a separate repository for 64-bit distros
> just so that their 32-bit library packages can be told to make their
> home in /usr/lib32 and not try to take over /usr/lib which really
> belongs to 64-bit libraries on a 64-bit installation. In fact, this is
> exactly how Fedora and RHEL work. They have a separate repository for
> 32-bit distros and for 64-bit distros. The 64-bit distros' repos have
> both 32-bit and 64-bit packages which are going to stick their contents
> in the places.
>
> The problem therefore is the way packaging is currently done and the
> repository architecture. That is why you have to resort to an uber
> ia32-libs package which is really not a solution at all but a cloth
> being tied around a leak of a pipe. It helps but does not completely
> solve the problem.

That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

Evan