Re: [gentoo-user] emerge 32bits on 64bits platform

[Mike Edenfield <kutulu@kutulu.org>]

On 8/16/2010 2:13 PM, Stéphane Guedon wrote:
> I have read several things about this, but never really solved !
> 
> Can I emerge a 32bits software on 64bits platform with a multilib profile ?
> 
> All my web browsers (konqueror, opera, chromium, firefox) are 64bits, whereas 
> flash player exist currently in 32bits. So, I need to have 32bits browser ! Can 
> I emerge ?

* There are a few binary packages in Portage that are 32-bit binaries.
In your case, specifically, there is firefox-bin and chromium-bin.
Those should emerge and run fine on a multilib system, after emerging
the correct 32-bit compatibility packages.  Note that Flash will run *a
lot* slower than you're probably used to in this setup.

* For other web browsers, you could build your own 32-bit software on
the 64-bit system.  That's trickier, but there is a cross-dev system
available in portage you can use to ease the pain a bit.  Personally I'd
just go with one of the binary browser packages.

* You could try using the nspluginwrapper package, which was built just
for this purpose (loading 32-bit plugins into a 64-bit browser).  Flash
only worked sporadically for me under nspluginwrapper, but apparently
others have a lot of success with it.

* Or, you can do what I did, and mask off adobe-flash-10.0.53*, so you
will still have the 64-bit Flash Player available until Adobe gets their
act together and releases a newer version.  It limits you to those Flash
applications where you already know and trust the publisher, since
there's a list as long as my arm of security fixes in 10.0.53.64, but
that's good enough for me for now.