MacOS 32-bit support

Fri Jan 26 16:40:24 EST 2018

At Fri, 26 Jan 2018 13:08:06 -0600 Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at gmail.com> wrote:

> 

> Yes, with a performance hit, it is possible, at least with Virtualbox to
> install a 64-bit OS on a 32-bit host. Mileage varies based on the host and
> guest. Iâ€™ve pulled it off a few times. I donâ€™t know however if you can
> run apps that require 64-bit in such a guest without issue.

I guess to run 64-bit guests on 32-bit hosts, the virtualization software is
actually *emulating* a 64-bit processor (I guess Virtualbox does that). I
think Linux/KVM does not do that. Actually, I belive 32-bit RHEL/CentOS 6 does
not include KVM and has no virtualization support.

All x86_64 processors can run in i686 mode and can run 32-bit applications, 
but you need the 32-bit shared libraries.  My guess in the case of the newest 
MacOSX, Apple is not  bothering to ship the 32-bit libraries or is not 
shipping "universal" (32-bit/64-bit) libraries, however they handle that.  
Typlically with *Linux* almost every shared library is available as a 64-bit 
and a 32-bit library (RHEL/CentOS uses /usr/lib for 32-bit and /usr/lib64 for 
64-bit, Debian does something different, I think there are 
/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/ and /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ directories.

> 
> As for the other way around, Iâ€™ve never had an issue, but then I also didnâ€™t have the situation of the host not supporting 32-bit apps either. Itâ€™s worth a shot I suppose to see if older but still functional hardware can be extended on life support a bit longer.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
> > On Jan 26, 2018, at 6:46 AM, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:
> > 
> > At Thu, 25 Jan 2018 23:52:00 -0600 Adrien Monteleone <adrien.monteleone at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> >> 
> >> Thanks for the heads-up. (I still have a Snow Leopard Macbook, but donâ€™t
> >> use it for GnuCash any longer)
> >> 
> >> Any reason to think a 32-bit vm to run 2.6.x if needed on 10.14 or a 64-bit
> >> vm to run 2.7/3.0 on older Macs wouldnâ€™t handle those hopefully few cases?
> >> (other than maybe a performance hit that is)
> > 
> > Is it possible to run a 64-bit VM on 32-bit hardware?  I suspect not.
> > 
> > Note: with Linux/KVM (don't know about other VM systems), you don't actually 
> > get a "32-bit" VM -- all VMs are 64-bit, just like the host -- you just 
> > install a 32-bit O/S on the 64-bit machine.  A 32-bit OS installed on a 64-bit 
> > machine (VM or bare metal) behaves like it was installed on a i686 w/PAE.  At 
> > least that is the case of Linux.  I have no clue what MacOSX will do if you 
> > try to install a 32-bit incarnation on 64-bit hardware (unless it is a really 
> > old version of MacOSX).  I guess you could always install a 32-bit version of 
> > Linux (not really sure why -- even though RH dropped 32-bit *kernels* from 
> > CentOS 7, 32-bit applications can still be run on CentOS 7 -- I would guess 
> > the same would be true of Ubuntu if/when they stops being 32-bit kernels for 
> > Ubuntu). 
> > 
> >> 
> >> Regards,
> >> Adrien
> >> 
> >>> On Jan 25, 2018, at 11:11 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> >>> 
> >>> On the off chance that anyone else is running a Mac with Developer Beta MacOS installed, the latest developer beta will put up the attached dialog when you launch Gnucash 2.6.x. What it means is that MacOS 10.14 (theyâ€™ll announce the name at WWDC in June) wonâ€™t support 32-bit applications.
> >>> 
> >>> GnuCash.app 2.7.x is 64-bit and wonâ€™t have a problem. That also means that it wonâ€™t work for the (one hopes very few) users who still have 32-bit Macs. It actually wonâ€™t support anything older than MacOS X 10.9 (Mavericks) which will shut out a few of the early 64-bit Macs as well.
> >>> 
> >>> Regards,
> >>> John Ralls
> >>> 
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> >> 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
> > Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
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