Serious upgrade problem! My computer previously was 64 bit and now is 32 bit.

[Chris Green]

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 01:01:20PM -0400, Bill Stanley wrote:
[snip tale of woe]

> I also notice that the boot time is significantly longer.  The boot
> time for the original installation, 10.10, (turning on,logging in
> and finally being able to run applications) was less than 30
> seconds.  For this version upgrade (version 11.10) the boot time can
> be as much as 3 to 4 minutes.  This might be due to the wrong OS
> being used.
> 
You can't upgrade directly from version 10.10 to version 11.10 so I
suspect something else has happened.

> Having established that the OS upgrade is in error, I now have to
> manually change from the 32 bit version to the 64 bit version
> without losing my data.  Not having to completely replace the OS
> before, I would like instructions on how best to proceed.
> 
You will always lose *some* settings and stuff.

You need to back up /home, /etc and /var, to somewhere *off* the system
you are restoring.  Then do a clean install of the OS you want, then
restore /home from your backups and the bits and pieces needed from /etc
and /var.

-- 
Chris Green