Re: Forcing 32-bit operation of the entire system?
Re: Forcing 32-bit operation of the entire system?
- Subject: Re: Forcing 32-bit operation of the entire system?
- From: Gwynne Raskind <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2010 06:03:22 -0400
On Jun 5, 2010, at 11:18 PM, FZiegler wrote:
>> Nothing will save you from that question. What are you really trying to do?
> I am trying to troubleshoot an Apache extension which doesn't seem to work in 64 bit. I have since found that I can start it manually by prefixing /usr/sbin/httpd with 'arch -i386', but...
Forcing the system into an unnatural and unsupported configuration will do nothing to help you solve any such issue. The method you've already discovered of starting Apache with the arch command is the correct means of dealing with a recalcitrant Apache module; gdb also has builtin commands to control the architecture of a binary being debugged. All messing with the system's bit width will do is muddy the issue by hiding it behind whatever other mass of problems that messing causes, rather like trying to use a pair of maladjusted pliers to remove a splinter from your back in total darkness.
>> I know of issues that can prevent booting if you force 32-bit binaries to be used on certain configs due to assumptions they make about their environment.
> ...if as you seem to imply, there is a way to force it across the board, I'd still like to try. (This Mac swaps & beachballs a LOT less if I set just *Safari* to run 32-bit, or return to 10.5.8 on another partition.)
This suggests any number of potential issues, but what you're asking for simply doesn't work. The only sure-fire way to force the entire system 32-bit - don't do it! - is to PERMANENTLY disable all 64-bit code by piping find through lipo under sudo, at which point there's no going back short of reinstalling the OS and anything else that may have been installed at the time. Since as Shantonu wrote, forcing 32-bit will probably make it impossible to boot your system, you'll have destroyed your OS installation.
If you're seeing heavy swapping under 64-bit, it's possible that your system has too little RAM to run in your configuration, that your hard drive's free space is critically fragmented, that your hard drive just doesn't have enough free space, that there's some corrupted cache or preference file messing with your applications, that you have a bad memory module in your computer, that your computer is too old to run 10.6 successfully, that Safari in particular has some 64-bit issue, that you're running some other ill-behaved application - this list continues on ad infinitum. What you need is a sampler output during the beachballing to see what's really going on, and to look at Activity Monitor to see where your RAM is going.
-- Gwynne
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