gpg: Signature made Tue Jul 16 11:29:02 2019 UTC
gpg: using DSA key 2099B64CBF15490B
gpg: Good signature from "Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andrew James Smith <andy@strugglers.net>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andy Smith (UKUUG) <andy.smith@ukuug.org>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andy Smith (BitFolk Ltd.) <andy@bitfolk.com>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andy Smith (Linux User Groups UK) <andy@lug.org.uk>" [unknown]
gpg: aka "Andy Smith (Cernio Technology Cooperative) <andy.smith@cernio.com>" [unknown]
Hi Ross,
On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 10:35:18PM +1200, Ross Younger via users wrote:
> we're only really talking about the kernel here? So, if (like me)
> you've upgraded your kernel and hence your Xen instance to 64 bit,
> but your userland is a mixture of 32 and 64 bit, you're OK?
That is correct. When you boot a 64-bit kernel, that is a 64-bit
guest that just happens to run some 32-bit binaries (until you
decide to replace all the 32-bit binaries, which maybe you never
do).
For anyone else wondering, on Debian and Ubuntu it is pretty easy to
change to a 64-bit kernel as long as you're running a reasonably
modern release. Details here:
https://wiki.debian.org/CrossGrading
You'd only go as far as the kernel bit. Maybe not even go as far as
changing dpkg (which is what decides if your userland is 32- or
64-bit by default).
It's trying to reinstall all the packages as 64-bit that tends to be
the tricky part, where it is easy to accidentally remove essential
system packages like coreutils and ifupdown.
The main downside of this is that it's not a common setup for
Debian/Ubuntu so you might run into weird bugs and the first thing
the package maintainers will probably say is, "try it without doing
that."
> Clearly I ought to upgrade to buster, which will enable PVH mode
Just to clarify, while kernel versions 4.11 and higher support
booting in PVH mode, to do so does require configuration on the
BitFolk side, so this is a medium term project for us to move
customers to that where feasible. Sadly it will not just happen by
you running a new enough kernel.
We have to test it thoroughly, which means booting, running for a
while, install from scratch, suspend and restore, etc. It's going to
take a little while.
> rather than continue with my ~8 years of cruft around the
> filesystem, did you say something about being able to offer a
> spare guests on a short term basis for the purposes of reimaging?
Yes, we can give you an extra VM for free for two weeks to carry out
any reinstallation you might want to do.
https://tools.bitfolk.com/wiki/Migrating_to_a_new_VPS
Cheers,
Andy
--
https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting
