[gentoo-amd64] Can I run a 32-bit kernel on my 64-bit kernel Gentoo machine?

[Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com>]

Hi,
   I'm very unclear about this idea. I've built my new AMD64 machine
using the Gentoo 64-bit setup. The kernel I emerge uses the ~amd64 to
I think I get a full 64-bit kernel. (Please excuse me on this issue.
I'm a bit of a "follow instructions, not necessarily understand the
whole thing" kind of guy on this one, and I definitely feel like I
don't get what's up with 64-bit operation so far...) As far as I know
everything on my machine is supposed to run in 64-bit mode, as far as
I know.

   Anyway, this machine is an AMD64 using a NForce4 motherboard. At
this point, running a kernel with the processor being an AMD64
processor, I'm unable to run the machine with no xruns using Jack. Any
disk activity seems to be the main cause of xruns on this machine.
I've tried the AMD64 64-bit Gentoo kernel as well as ck-sources.
Neither has worked well at all for me. I continue to get xruns and
haven't been able to figure out how to configure the machine to work
well. Bummer.

   Since I've had great results on all of my older 32-bit machines in
the past using gentoo-sources with no modifications I'd like to try
running that on this machine to see if the xruns are a platform issue,
such as the chipset, etc.) or whether they are cuased by operating in
64-bit mode. However, I am completely unable to figure out for myself
if I can run a 32-bit kernel when everything else - glibc, xrog-x11,
qt, gnome, apps, etc., have been compiled as 64-bit capable. Is this
allowed, or will the machine not work running a 32-bit kernel at this
point?

   Sorry if this question sounds brain dead but I'm not a CS/IT
person. I'm a hardware guy and in my world 64-bit is real different
than 32-bit. If I build a kernel for a Athlon will it work with all
the existing libraries that work with 64-bit?

Thanks in advance,
Mark

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