On Mon, 21 Sep 2009, Nick Holland wrote:
David Vasek wrote:
From http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq12.html#amd64better :
12.3.3 - Is it always better to run OpenBSD/amd64 on processors that
support it?
Not always.
There are a number of reasons one may desire to use OpenBSD/i386 over
OpenBSD/amd64, even on hardware that supports amd64 code:
[...]
* Need for ability to move disks to another machine that isn't amd64
capable
[...]
Do I understand it right that disks (FFS, disklabel?) from OpenBSD/i386
cannot be accessed on OpenBSD/amd64 or vice versa?
ACCESSED, yes, you can access data on your amd64 disks on an i386 system.
That sentence was intended to refer to repair. If your amd64 system craps
out and you need to pull the disks out and put it in another machine and have
it Just Work (or work with minimal effort), you need to have another
amd64-compatible processor. That wasn't referring to a file system issue,
but rather a rapid repair issue.
I see, it refers to something else. It's clear now. May I suggest a slight
modification to that sentence in the FAQ then?
* Need for ability to move disks with already installed
operating system to another machine that isn't amd64 capable
Best way I know of to back up a lot of odd machines is to one store is
running your favorite backup application so it dumps its data over ssh link
to the one machine (which you have a spare of for repair purposes) which has
the backup media attached to it.
I agree, this is approximately what I am doing, but sometimes a directly
connected USB-attached disk comes handy.
however, if "Different architectures" means amd64 and i386, no issues at all.
Yes, i386 and amd64 currently, but I would like to stay compatible with
sparc64 too. However, sparc64 is big-endian so I am out of luck anyway.
And "foreign" filesystems (ext2fs) are so slow on OpenBSD.
Thanks, Nick.
Regards,
David
