3

I am currently running a 64bit Debian based Kali Linux distro if I add i386 architecture by:

dpkg --add-architecture i386

Will it not mess up my current 64bit OS?

simhumileco
  • 489
sasori
  • 155

1 Answers1

2

Generally, it is safe. It may mess things up if you try to install packages with apt-get install, since apt-get can suggest you to remove a majority of amd64 packages in order to be replaced by i368 packages. The solution is to download packages with apt-get download pkgname and then install it using dpkg -i pkgname.deb. You may need to repeat this for the dependencies of the package you want to install. Depending on the system this can be done even with Synaptics.

Depending on what package you try to install, apt-get could recommend removing a huge amount of amd64 libs/pkgss/gcc etc. But this will not be done automatically. You will be asked first, so one has to be very careful where he press "Yes" on apt-get prompts...

simhumileco
  • 489
George Vasiliou
  • 7,913
  • 1
    I wouldn't expect apt to suddenly recommend that you replace all your amd64 packages with i386 ones just because you added the latter as a foreign architecture. (The architecture of dpkg itself is always considered to be the native one.) – Celada Dec 17 '16 at 13:03
  • Yes, apt-get install won't magically decide to replace amd64 packages with i386 ones. You just need to pay attention to what it's asking about when it requests confirmation, as always... – Stephen Kitt Dec 17 '16 at 14:00
  • @Celada In my case this is what happened.... Depending on what package you try to install, apt-get could recommend to remove a huge amount of amd64 libs/pkgss/gcc etc. But yes this will not be done automatically. You will be asked first, so one has to be very carefull where he press " Yes" on apt-get prompts.... – George Vasiliou Dec 17 '16 at 14:24
  • 1
    I'd say that in general it's better to stick to apt-get install, pay attention to the prompts, and try to figure out what's wrong when it decides it should remove a bunch of packages. Inexperienced users who try to use apt-get download and dpkg -i are liable to get themselves into a pickle too, so I don't think it's a good idea to recommend that instead of apt-get install. If anything, I'd recommend aptitude instead since that allows the user to try various approaches to resolving issues (with its interactive mode). – Stephen Kitt Dec 17 '16 at 14:43
  • @Stephen Different point of view. If i could sent you the prompts of apt-get install during installation of teamviewer 32bit (based on a lot of c libs) you might consider apt get download a less risky idea than accepting apt-get removals. I choose download i got double libs as a penalty (gcc both amd64 and i386) but teamviewer works fine with my rest system "intact". – George Vasiliou Dec 17 '16 at 15:16
  • 1
    teamviewer is very easy to install with apt-get install; all that's needed is to realise that libjpeg62-turbo:i386 provides libjpeg62:i386 and should be installed instead (unfortunately apt-get doesn't do that on its own...). I stand by what I said, it's better to figure out why apt-get install is complaining that to work around it. We get enough questions about broken dependencies on Debian-based systems here as it is... – Stephen Kitt Dec 17 '16 at 17:40