On Tuesday, June 24, 2025, Aoife Moloney via devel-announce < devel-annou...@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> Wiki - https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Drop_i686_support > Discussion thread - > https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f43-change-proposal-drop-i686- > support-system-wide/156324 > > This is a proposed Change for Fedora Linux. > This document represents a proposed Change. As part of the Changes > process, proposals are publicly announced in order to receive > community feedback. This proposal will only be implemented if approved > by the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee. > > == Summary == > > Fedora package repositories for the x86_64 architecture no longer > include libraries for compatibility with 32-bit applications > ("multilib"), and packages are no longer built for the i686 > architecture. > > == Owner == > > * Name: [[User:Decathorpe| Fabio Valentini]], [[User:Fale|Fale]], > [[User:Kevin|Kevin Fenzi]] > * Email: decathorpe (at) gmail (dot) com, mail (at) fale (dot) io, > kevin (at) scrye (dot) com > > > > == Detailed Description == > > Fedora stopped providing > [https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Stop_Building_i686_Kernels > kernel packages, installer images] and stopped publishing > [https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Noi686Repositories i686 > package repositories] with Fedora 31. However, packages were by > default still built for the i686 architecture, since they were > required for running 32-bit applications on x86_64 hosts ("multilib"). > > Since Fedora 37, leaf packages (i.e. packages that are not depended on > by other packages) can simply > [https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/EncourageI686LeafRemoval stop > building for i686] without any reason, which has allowed package > maintainers to focus their work on architectures where packages are > actually shipped to users. > > This Change Proposal implements the next two (and last) steps: > > * Packages built for the i686 architecture are no longer included in > x86_64 repositories (dropping "multilib" support, i.e. support for > running 32-bit userspace on a 64-bit host). > * Packages are no longer built for the i686 architecture. > > This is intentionally planned as a two-step process - the first step > (no longer including 32-bit libraries in the x86_64 repositories) > should be relatively easy to revert (if needed). The second step is > basically irreversible, since reversing it would require to partially > re-bootstrap the architecture. > > Some packages will require changes to adapt for the removal of 32-bit > libraries from the x86_64 package repositories - notably, `wine` will > need to be built in the > [https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/wine/pull-request/19 "new WoW64" > configuration], which allows running 32-bit Windows applications on > top of 64-bit-only host systems. > > It is planned to implement the first step as early as possible in the > development cycle, but before the mass rebuild at the latest. This > provides a transition period of at least four weeks to catch potential > issues *before* the potentially irreversible second step is > implemented (before the beta freeze). > > When this Change is successfully implemented, a mechanism will be > provided to remove any installed i686 packages on upgrade to avoid > leaving behind packages that will no longer be updated, maintained, or > which might cause upgrade issues in the future. > > == Feedback == > > N/Y > > == Benefit to Fedora == > > By dropping completely the i686 architecture, Fedora will decrease the > burden on package maintainers, release engineering, infrastructure, > and users. > > I don't think so that change really "decrease burdens on user". It's actually the opposite, it simplifies the infrastructure at the expense of users, which then would have to jump through hoops to achieve what they want. And no repository metadata size is hardly a "burden on users".
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