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I would like to upgrade Ubuntu from the 32 bit version to the 64 bit version in the quickest and easiest way possible. Ideally I would like to do this from within Ubuntu if possible. I do not mind wiping the computer and losing all data. Any help appreciated.

Zanna
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Alexander Peace
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1 Answers1

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A similar question has been already asked about this subject: Is it possible to "upgrade" from a 32bit to a 64bit installation?

Like it has been explained, the upgrade of Ubuntu (32-bit) to Ubuntu (64-bit) is for professional-level sysadmins therefore, I recommend you to be really careful with that. (Debian based systems 32-bit to 64-bit).

So, if you have a separated /home partition, the easiest solution would be to overwrite your / partition by doing an installation of Ubuntu 16.04 (64-bit) over it.

With that being said, if you absolutely want to do the migration and you don't have a /home partition, there is a straightforward way to do this migration: Quora - Migration 32-bit to 64-bit

P.S. If you don't mind loosing all your data, you should just then install Ubuntu 16.04 (64 bit), it'll be the quickest and easiest way possible.

Kian
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    While this answer seems completely correct, I want to emphasise to the OP that a 32-bit to 64-bit upgrade really is NOT recommended, officially supported, or even possible without fairly extensive hackery that even describes itself as "a bad idea" and the official documentation describes it as "impossible". – thomasrutter Jan 09 '18 at 01:02
  • Ubuntu preserves data in $HOME if you do not format / or if you have a separate partition /home – Panther Jan 09 '18 at 02:12
  • @Panther I'm sorry but I'm not fully getting your point. $HOME is a linux environnement variable that contains the current user's home directory in a string. So it doesn't preserve any data. – Kian Jan 09 '18 at 02:18
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    See https://askubuntu.com/questions/269880/re-install-ubuntu-without-losing-data-in-home-folder and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuReinstallation - "Since Hardy it is possible to reinstall Ubuntu without losing the content of the /home folder (the folder that contains program settings, internet bookmarks, emails and all your documents, music, videos and other user files). This can be done even if /home is not on a separate partition " – Panther Jan 09 '18 at 02:28
  • of course $HOME is dependant of the environment of the current lgged in user, but most user home directories should be within /home (except for the "root" user whose home directory in "/root"). So yes reinstalling (without repartitioning and withour reformating) is the simplest solution as it will override all files found elsewhere, and it will also rebuild the configuration. Migrating from i386 to amd64 is not easy (dpkg, aptitude, perl have to be upgraded, this requires installing first a multiarch package, then several packages must be updated simultaneously or they will stop working) – verdy_p Jun 02 '18 at 11:41