Can Lubuntu 32 bit be upgraded to 64 bit?
Without a clean install?
Simply - No.
It’s a change of architecture, and the only sane way to do it is via re-install.
You can re-install using ‘Manual Partitioning’ (‘Something else’ in 18.04’s ubiquity’s terminology) and use your existing partitions, and not have it format your partitions; where the installer will note your installed (added) packages, erase system directories, install, then re-install your additional packages in the new architecture (ie. x86_64 or 64-bit now) without impacting your user files (unless you clicked ‘format’). This would be how I’d do it anyway. Not a clean install, but still a re-install.
OK, Thanks.
I have seen what you are talking about during a few installs. Make sense to me.
Thanks again.
Whilst not an issue for most programs/apps used by desktop users, as system directories are wiped, there are some [server mainly] applications that store settings/configs in system directories, so they can lose settings.
As such if you’re talking about a server with Lubuntu desktop added on top of it - you may have to restore some configs; but I can’t think of any normal desktop apps that are impacted by this. Backup your data regardless anyway before hand (better safe than sorry).
NO, Not a server. Just and old laptop w/ 1Gb. of memory.
Being cyber Monday, I found a good deal on 2 Gb. of memory to upgrade. I went w/ the 32 bit ISO for ease of use on the hardware.
Now, I was thinking about 64 bit upgrade. I have a good back up w/ TimeShift. But that will restore 32 bit system files.(Don´t want that)
What do I need to back up? Just the HOME directory?
If it was me, I’d create a backup of everything, plus a backup of your home directory (these user files matter more to me, so I’d have two copies possibly of this, likely made with rsync or just cpmaking it easy to grab only what I decide i want/need). I haven’t used TimeShift sorry.
Especially if I didn’t save everything, I also usually also save /etc/hosts, /etc/fstab, and /etc/apt/sources.list file (and I scan to see if I added in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ for anything I added but it’s often empty for me). These files just get copied to my backups folder with a .boxname.yyyymmdd added to end of filename. I don’t restore them, but have found them useful on occasion to jog my memory (eg. the ‘new’ system no longer sees a package you know you had installed; you’ve somewhere to see if you added extra sources to your ‘old’ system…)
At a minimum, I’d recommend your /home/ stuff, but it’s everything that matters to you (influenced somewhat by size and easy access to storage available to you).
The folders you refer to: /etc/hosts , /etc/fstab
Are these on a server? I don´t have those folders.
No, /etc/hosts and /etc/fstab are files.
The HOSTS file is the first method of storing other machines addresses used by ARPANET (what became our modern internet). A simple list of IP addresses and human names. DNS was created once the hosts list became unmanageable (it’s okay to manage a list of a couple of hundred computers that rarely change, but who’d want to manage thousands or millions, thus DNS). This file exists in windows systems too.
FSTAB is your file-system table, a list of what partitions or network shares get loaded. Ideally it doesn’t contain /dev/sda1 type references but UUID’s, or in my case a load of NFS & network share details.
I keep copies of these only as I’ve found I want to return to them on occasion (eg. a change in UUID means I’ve likely formatted a partition in error, my HOSTS file contains loads of my local device names if I’m not using my own DNS; plus numerous ‘drop’ items, eg.
186 127.0.0.1 facebook.com
187 127.0.0.1 facebook.de
188 127.0.0.1 facebook.fr
the numbers on the left are just lines numbers (I copied it from view /etc/hosts on my current box) which mean if anything tries to go to ~36 facebook domains it’ll resolve to my localhost and not work 
Most users probably don’t use HOSTS, but I use it a bit, for local addresses & drop.lists I add to it (this box has facebook.drop.list added to it, but not my google.drop.list as I need that for Ubuntu News work). Yesterday when I posted something using facebook for Ubuntu_News (that maybe the twitter handle, I forget the accounts), I just used the TOR browser that ignores my HOSTS file to login to fb & post.
If you don’t know the files, they possibly aren’t important to you.
Hey Chris,
I looked into these 2 files, they are both there. Not much data in them though. Just a few lines here & there.
Are either of these files due to the fact that I can not see any windows networked computers in my file manager?
I can get to them by using smb:// xxxx /
But I can not see any of my windows PC´s only Linux PC´s.
Is there something I need to add or turn on?
If you need more info. I can explain in more detail…
My prior answer was based very much on what I would do. I save those files as I put a lot of stuff into my HOSTS file (some of which I described; using it to block sites like facebook, and allowing me to use local names instead of IP addresses even if my DNS server is down).
If you don’t use either of them (or as I said; don’t know them), then they aren’t important to you and you needn’t back them up.
I doubt I can help with SaMBa via pcmanfm or GUI; I rarely use it (I use NFS) restricting my SaMBa access to read-only primarily for access of files by media players (which are usually GNU/Linux pc’s too). I have put entries for my SaMBa mounts in /etc/fstab, but most of my experience is with GNU/Linux or NAS devices doing the file-serving, and not windows computers (of which I have none).
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