Re: "Migrating" 32bit to 64bit netbsd

[jnemeth%victoria.tc.ca@localhost (John Nemeth)]

On Jan 9,  9:09am, Niels Dettenbach wrote:
} 
} this might sounds a little curious (so don't hit me...) but my target is to
} migrate several NetBSD xen guests (i386 - 32bit PAE) to 64bit in the next.
} 
} My problem is that my xen host is linux and so i have no write access to the
} guests filesystem (so i tend to use a small "workbench" 64bit netbsd VM for
} that).
} 
} Did someone have any good and proven practice here to recommend?
} 
} My current idea is to just:
} 
}  1.) make a copy of the VMs disks / "partitions"
}  2.) mount it somewhere into a running 64bit NetBSD system
}  3.) write the new (64bit) sets over the old userland on that mounts (incl.
} copying my new kernel)

     i386 and amd64 uses different device numbering, so you'll also
need to cd dev ; sh MAKEDEV all

}  4.) chroot to the mountpoint of the root fs
}  5.) make all installed software  from pkgsrc into 64bit
}  6.) unmount / xen hangout
}  7.) start the VM with a 64bit kernel
} 
} Another option could be to start the VM after 3.) and build the pkgsrc stuff
} within the 64bit migrated VM.

     This is certainly a viable option as long as you're not dependent
on something from pkgsrc for connectivity.

}-- End of excerpt from Niels Dettenbach