[gentoo-user] Gentoo x86 to AMD64

[Anthony Metcalf]

Hi,

   I have a system that started out running on an AMD K6II 450MHz 
processor....About 3 months ago, it was upgraded to a Phenom. The 
process was pretty painless, recompile kernel, install new hardware, 
reboot, rebuild network drivers etc alter C(XX)FLAGS and emerge -e world....

   Now I have a system that flies, but I want to be able to use 64Bit 
VMware guests...so, I am quite sure I need to have a 64bit system for 
VMWare server to allow this...

   I have two theories about how to go about this.....no1, install esx 
3i on a spare drive, make a 32bit Linux guest and point it's drives at 
the raw partitions I have now :) no2, alter make.conf to 64bit flags, 
and emerge -e world --buildpkgonly then reboot into a 64bit live cd, and 
emerge -e world --usepkgonly which should give me a working 
system....Obviously the kernel and network drivers would also need 
rebuilding at this point again....

   Will no 2 work?

   I don't really want to go the route of 1 as I will need a windows 
box for the esx admin, and if I was putting esx on this machine, I would 
want to have more storage first and manage the esx storage properly, 
rather than using raw drives.......

Comments? Ideas?

Anthony