Simon Stelling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> posted [EMAIL PROTECTED], excerpted below, on Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:22:24 +0200:
> Neil Bothwick wrote: >> What's wrong with the GRUB source package? I remember using grub-static >> when I first went 64 bit, but haven't used it for ages. The only 32 bit >> stuff I use here is firefox-bin and vmware. > > No problem, but it's 32bit. Indeed... for backward compatibility, amd64/x86_64 boots in 32-bit mode. Actually, I /believe/ it boots in 16-bit real mode, just like an x86, then switches to 32-bit or 64-bit when the appropriate command is given, but AFAIK the difference between compiling 16-bit and 32-bit code is simply a few compile-time switches, so it uses a standard 32-bit toolchain. My point, however, was that since everything else I run is 64-bit, if I didn't need the 32-bit tools to compile grub -- or if I was willing to settle for the pre-compiled grub-static -- I could save myself a *LOT* of extra work by simply using the no-multilib subprofile, thus saving myself all that time compiling the 32-bit side of glibc and gcc in particular. One of these days maybe I'll probably just do it, unmerging grub, merging grub-static, switching to the no-multilib subprofile and remerging glibc/binutils/gcc (they may have to be remerged in a particular order, which I don't know at this point). However, I've been thinking that for awhile and haven't done it yet, and I'll be upgrading my pair of Opteron 242s to dual-core 285s pretty soon here, making it that much less necessary since compiles will be rather faster then, so who knows? Hmm... thinking about it as I write this, something new occurred to me. There's a good probability I could compile grub independent of my system's portage, using a LiveCD (either Gentoo or other), and could therefore go no-multilib without losing my self-compiled grub, if I decided to. I'll have to think on it a bit more. OTOH, simply using grub-static would be far less hassle for what amounts to the same thing, since using a gcc I didn't build myself would leave outside influences on the produced grub anyway. Still, part of what was holding me up was the "just in case" factor, for other 32-bit software as well, and now that I realize I could compile it from a liveCD 32-bit environment or the like if necessary, that pretty much does away with /that/ particular excuse. -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman -- [email protected] mailing list
