Upgrading from 32bit to 64 bit OS on 2950

[Sam Flory]

Brendan Heading wrote:
> McDougall, Marshall (FSH) writes: 
> 
>> On my first foray into the 2950 I installed the 32bit RHEL4U4.  I have
>> been told of the error in my ways and now I want to install the 64 bit
>> version.  I have never done the 64 bit install and am wondering if I can
>> simply do an upgrade or do I need to start from scratch?  Any advice
>> appreciated, and yes I will RTFM as well.  Thanks.
> 
> You must reinstall from scratch. 
> 

  That's not completely true.  I've migrated a linux system from 32 bit
to 64.  It's just more trouble than reinstalling and restoring your
config.  (I was bored.) Also you should assume that you'll render the
box unbootable at some point(s).  Lastly you'll need to navigate through
rpm hell.  Honestly this is easier if you are running debian, or least
centos.  Apt, and yum are your friends.

0)Install a 64 kernel, or boot a 64 bit kernel from a rescue disk.

1)Install glibc 64 bit without uninstalling the 32 bit one.

2)Reinstall init, mkinitrd, rpm/, and redhat release (or your distro's
eqiv) this will be fun as you'll need to install their requirements.

3)Now manually or with a utils start upgrading everything.

4)Realize you've created a franken box, and wish you'd just reinstalled;-)