32 or 64 bit

Can Knoppix be forced 64 bit when using Knoppix HD Install? I I need to install Knoppix to HD as a true 64 bit. I booted the live cd with knoppix64 and the used the Knoppix to HD Install. Afterwards I found that it installed as 32 bit. I edited the boot file to load vmlinz-4.2.6-64 assuming this would resolve. I now find that uname -m generates x86_64 yet getconf long_bit generates 32 and when attempting to install a 64 bit application I get an error, package architecture amd64 doesnt match system i386.
So is it possible to install knoppix to hd as a 64 bit os and run 64 bit applications?

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Originally Posted by itman007

So is it possible to install knoppix to hd as a 64 bit os and run 64 bit applications?

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Knoppix, so far as 7.6, does not include 64-bit libraries which many 64-bit apps will need.
What you get is a 32-bit or 64-bit kernel and 32-bit libraries.
This allows full access to any memory you might have, but no 64-bit app capability, if these require 64-bit library material.
Maybe, on an app-by-app basis you can somehow settle the missing 64-bit dependencies, but that may not be easy.

In practice, the distinction is not very clear-cut, Knoppix 7.6.1 may be viewed as something of a 32/64 hybrid. Running the 64-bit kernel with the right 32/64 libraries, you may be able to make quite a few 64-bits applications run, and arch reports x86_64, exactly the same as my live Debian 8.3.0. I could run that as a 64-bits guest in kvm, but I couldn't make VMware install the 64-bits version of Workstation 10. There might be a workaround for that, but I don't take the time to look for it, for I am able to use standard Debian 8.3.0 in about the same way I have used Knoppix, with poor man's installs and persistent store.

As a small illustration of this, I just checked running a remastered Debian 8.3.0 with VMware Workstation 10 installed, in kvm under Knoppix 7.6.1, no modifications, just Knoppix out of the box w/4GB persistent store. There is a memory limit of 2047 MB in Knoppix kvm, but using that I was even able to start 64-bits VMware in the virtual machine, with up to 1200x1600 resolution. So it can be a bit misleading to call this a 32-bits system, just with a 64 bits kernel option.

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Originally Posted by Capricorny

...I am able to use standard Debian 8.3.0 in about the same way I have used Knoppix...

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Were you successful in knoppifying Debian Live? or Debianizing Knoppix? It would be nice to see a merger with some
of the characteristics of each. I sure don't need all the apps that Klaus K provides, but bloat is no longer a problem
with the current low cost of SDs, Cruzers and such. The 64-bit kernel is worth it from the access to memory aspect alone.

Klaus K doesn't seem to have time himself to provide a minimal version in addition to the DVD, although he has finally
gone to multiple overlays for the basic DVD version for his own purposes. A re-definition might suffice to have a
'CD-size' KNOPPIX overlay and a complementary KNOPPIX1 overlay, that in combination with KNOPPIX defines,
on their union, a DVD-size KNOPPIX. Then some of us could just ignore KNOPPIX1 and build on the CD-size overlay.
Just as one might remove the current 7.6.1 KNOPPIX1 if one has no 3d-designer inclinations.

First, I think Knoppix is to a relatively high degree debianized already, what I miss, is a knxbootstrap utility as a debootstrap alternative. I don't like the design of initrd.img, and after having done some stress testing of systemd in 8.3.0 Jessie, reconfiguring the system a bit, I consider it not very robust. So I support Klaus K's design decisions. The important thing for me, is that the wish list of live/persistence features in Debian that I presented here last year, has largely been fulfilled in the present version of live-boot. So I can work with directories instead of partitions for the different versions of Debian, and having the compressed image one one partition and the persistent versions on another, makes development quite easy. Also, squashfs is a Linux kernel insider, cloop is definitely not. For example, I had to download source and compile the kernel module cloop.ko and manually insert in order to handle the Knoppix images in Debian Jessie. Both use aufs, though - even if OverlayFS is the kernel supported way to do union file systems now.