From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 18 06:36:59 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 648741065677 for ; Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:36:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kris@FreeBSD.org) Received: from weak.local (freefall.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::28]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C625A8FC18; Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:36:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kris@FreeBSD.org) Message-ID: <48D1F715.2070107@FreeBSD.org> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:37:09 +0100 From: Kris Kennaway User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (Macintosh/20080707) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andrew Berry References: <7D3E2F4C-5CF8-4DCA-8B8F-5AF2015250B1@sentex.net> In-Reply-To: <7D3E2F4C-5CF8-4DCA-8B8F-5AF2015250B1@sentex.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1250; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Upgrading to 64 bit from a 32 bit installation on FBSD 7 X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:36:59 -0000 Andrew Berry wrote: > Hi, > > I've got a server which will be upgraded to my "castoff" parts which > support amd64. This machine has been running Freebsd since the 5.0 RC's, > starting on a P2 233Mhz, upgraded incrementally for a few years - a real > testament to the stability of a FreeBSD install! What I've done in the > past while upgrading is simply move the drive, and rebuild everything > with an updated make.conf optimized for the new processor. Can I simply > rebuild the world (or use freebsd-update), and portupgrade everything to > rebuild for amd64? Or, will things break as libraries are upgraded which > still have 32-bit dependancies on the system? This is a pretty common question, did you try searching the archives or google for the answer? > Also, AFAIK upgrading to a 64 bit system allows access to additional > registers on the CPU, leading to a performance increase. The system will > only have 1.5 gigs of RAM, so that's not an issue, but are there any > benchmarks out there comparing performance on < 4GB hardware with 32 bit > and 64 bit Freebsd? Performance is not a single number. Sometimes 64-bit systems can be slower, sometimes faster. Run it on your own workload or look for a narrowly tailored benchmark and see what happens for you. Kris