Funtoo Linux BDFL drobbins Posted June 9, 2014 Funtoo Linux BDFL Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 Everyone, There is an effort under way in Gentoo-land to add the ability for lots of ebuilds to optionally compile as 32-bit ebuilds on 64-bit systems (via an eclass,) so that they can be used to fulfill dependencies for 32-bit binary apps that you may be using, like Skype. It looks like the goal of this is to replace emul-linux-x86* ebuilds which package binary 32-bit libraries for this purpose, and is thus notably un-gentoo-like. I'm wondering how many people out there take advantage of multilib at all. I know I use multilib for Skype, but that's it. You can tell if an ebuild uses the 32-bit dependencies if it depends (actually, RDEPENDS) on anything starting with emul-linux-x86. You can grep /var/db/pkg and see if you have anything. It's (as far as I know) pretty much only needed for pre-built binary apps that run in 32-bit mode on 64-bit systems. When I first created Gentoo 64-bit, I intentionally avoided supporting multilib (32-bit runtime) support, and wanted to try to do all of this in a chroot, to keep ebuilds simple. Well, the devs at Gentoo went ahead and added it anyway, and it has been a big mess. I am also wondering how many people have played around with running 32-bit apps in a 32-bit chroot. I am wondering if I could get Skype working this way. It would take up more disk space but would be a cleaner approach. -Daniel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Hobden Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 Pretty sure I only used multilib for Skype and WINE on my Gentoo installs. Notably, with Steam for Linux becoming a thing, it might be good to keep that option open for people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funtoo Linux BDFL drobbins Posted June 9, 2014 Author Funtoo Linux BDFL Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 Does Steam have a true 64-bit build? If so, it wouldn't need the 32-bit libs underneath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adessemond Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 Yes definitely, some legacy 32 bits gear still exists and will exist for awhile (think about flash player just to quote one case). Also maybe not the best example around however there are some issues in dosbox with some old games running inside a 64 bits box (scrambled display). Unfortunately x86 is a messy architecture and binary backward compatibility is, at least for now, more or less mandatory depending of course of what you are using. Some proprietary software I use for some of my rig under Linux is also 32 bits. May be some solution will lie in the stabilization of this famous "x32"? Getting rid of those pre-built libraries will help, at least to keep a lean dependency tree... Sure you can split but if you split you must maintain two systems with all the joys this brings in, this is absolutely not "smooth" for the end user... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeanfrancis Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 I use multilib for Skype, wine and Steam. Steam seems to come only in 32-bit and requires multilib (at least for now). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l33tlinuxh4x0r Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 I too use multilib... Also I would like to keep it or something that works like it incase I need to run a 32 bit binary. Some software is 32 bit only like firefox-bin and iirc libreoffice-bin which install much faster than building them from source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryo Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 Hi, 32bits libs are used here for games ( steam, emulators, wine ). I once tried the abi_x86_32 thing ( what a mess ! ) and the result is : i'm not ready to compile twice my system. So i think i could easily forget about gaming in funtoo 64bits. I'll try to setup a chroot for steam and wine instead. There 's no 64 bits steam planned yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funtoo Linux BDFL drobbins Posted June 9, 2014 Author Funtoo Linux BDFL Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 I recently used one of our pure64 builds to set up a Funtoo server at home, and it's running great. I'm running Plex media server on it, which runs just fine in 64-bit. I think pure64 makes a lot of sense for server deployments -- am I right in concluding that the big need for 32-bit is on desktop systems? I'd imagine that any server software worth its salt would have a true 64-bit version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghent Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 I, too, use Steam, which requires 32bit. Other than that, I try to stick to only 64bit (my Plex server is also 64bit) Daniel, you reference running 32 bit clients in a chroot; do you happen to have any documentation already written up on the procedure for that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l33tlinuxh4x0r Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 nvidia-drivers use 32bit too but you are right about 32bit being needed for desktops but not for servers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aramisqc Posted June 10, 2014 Report Share Posted June 10, 2014 I need multilib because Brother's MFC-240C drivers are 32 bits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oleg Vinichenko Posted June 10, 2014 Report Share Posted June 10, 2014 Yes, Funtoo, suffers from time to time with new multilib transition. The idea of new multilib is probably not bad, gettin rid of emul-linux-*packages. But it's done very creepy. Some converted packages are masked, some only ~keyworded and some are stable. This leading to various uncertain portage issues. I'm more tend to just use either pure64 or x86, like arch linux does. I know sabayon abbandoned 32 bit support. Sorry, cross-posting from mail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeGa! Posted June 10, 2014 Report Share Posted June 10, 2014 Hi, a *too desktop and server power user/admin here. From a desktop perspective: Wine, skype, and some old binaries (can't think of one now) may still need 32b support (what about flash --which I've abandoned and chromium with pepper does the job for me now-- and java?) From a server perspective: I've suffered a royal PITA some time ago with a NAS from NEC which required a specific version of java (32b of course) for the management console. The customer had installed opensuse 2012 and replacing it was not an option. I think that chroot/virtualization/whichever-jailed-environment is not an elegant solution. Cheers, PeGa! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funtoo Linux BDFL drobbins Posted June 10, 2014 Author Funtoo Linux BDFL Report Share Posted June 10, 2014 One fruit of this discussion is that I think we need to mention our pure64 builds on our official install documentation, and recommend pure64 for servers. funtoo-current regular x86-32bit or x86-64bit builds (multilib) shoud be used for desktop systems. The pure64 build is working great as a server OS and more people should be aware of it as an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javajake Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 I use multilib for Steam, Skype, Wine, and some others as well that I can't name off the top of my head just now. Those emul ebuilds continue to be incredibly useful. I would be open to trying a multilib experiment if we found one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oleg Vinichenko Posted June 15, 2014 Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 If 32 bit applications not planned for usage, pure64 installs are very much appreciated. I have pure64 build running with XFCE and ati-drivers. Works like a charm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funtoo Linux BDFL drobbins Posted June 15, 2014 Author Funtoo Linux BDFL Report Share Posted June 15, 2014 I've updated our official install docs to mention pure64 as an option. But we still recommend multilib for desktop systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tolvo Posted February 14, 2016 Report Share Posted February 14, 2016 Is 64 bits better than 32 bits for a simple desktop user? Have someone a 64bit processor but still in a 32bit system? An user that use internet, skype and steam... Some interesting text: - http://archive09.linux.com/articles/114024?tid=121(is a bit old - 2005) - http://archive09.linux.com/feature/43873(is a bit old - 2005) - https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-349691.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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