Martin Mielke wrote:
Hi all,
on a previous post from me related to some YUM/Kyum problems when updating to KDE 3.5.4 (still not working, BTW), I found out there's some 32-bit software installed on my x86_64 system.
Example:
# rpm -qa | grep qt3 qt3-devel-tools-3.3.4-28 qt3-devel-3.3.4-28 qt3-32bit-3.3.4-28.5 qt3-3.3.4-28.5 qt3-devel-32bit-3.3.4-28
That was installed either by YaST or apt-get. I guess it's to keep some (backwards) compatibility for some applications. Am I right or is it safe to remove such 32-bit packages??
Yes, it is for backwards compatibility. AMD64 and whatever intel is calling their version of AMD64 are COMPLETELY 100% backwards compatible. The CPU can run 32bit software natively. AMD64-style is simply a 32-bit machine with a bunch of stuff tacked on, so you can run all the old stuff. However, a program has to be either 64bit or 32bit end-to-end, including what the program is linked to. If you had, let's say, a 32bit qt-program, you'd need the qt-32bit libraries. There's no real point in removing them, unless you're hurting for hard drive space...