x86_64 kernel on i386 system

Ed Cogburn edcogburn at hotpop.com
Mon Aug 15 14:49:28 UTC 2005


Dennis Kaarsemaker wrote:

> On ma, 2005-08-15 at 12:55 +0200, Gabriel wrote:
>> Hello! I have a AMD64 machine here but I run i386 since I had some
>> issues with the x86_64 distro. Anyway, can I just compile a kernel
>> that's made for x86_64 and use it with my i386 system without any
>> problems? Will it give me any performance boost?
> 
> It will not work.


Umm, no, it will.  I've done it.  However, I did it by starting from an
amd64 system where I built the 64bit kernel with IA32 support selected,
then copying that to an i386 partition created by debootstrap.  If the OP
only has an IA32 setup though, then there is no easy way to build an AMD64
kernel on an IA32 system.  You have to have a gcc with support for building
both IA32 and AMD64, but the gcc that comes on an IA32 system only knows
how to build IA32.

If you've got the time, drive space, and broadband net access, I'd recommend
creating a couple of partitions, make one a small 3GB partition, install a
minimal, no-X, AMD64 system on that.  Install just what you need to get a
working build system of gcc, nothing else, then get the kernel source and
build a custom kernel, and then use that for booting your other, full, IA32
partition.  And you could, if space is available, keep that first partition
as an emergency backup in case of future problems.






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