March 1st, 2010
32-bit Images Now Available
Following requests for 32-bit images I am pleased to be able to offer 32-bit images for Ubuntu Hardy, Jaunty and Karmic as well as Debian 5.0 (Lenny).
We had a discussion on our forums surrounding the images and we have labelled them as 'beta'.
The reason for the beta label is we have created a 64-bit Slice and kernel with a 32-bit userland. This means that if you installed apache with an 'aptitude install apache2', the 32-bit version will be pulled from the relevant repository and installed on your Slice. In addition, it also means you are able to natively run 64-bit executables.
Unfortunately, 64-bit versions of RPM-based distributions such as CentOS and Fedora do not have 32-bit ELF support in /sbin/init, so we are unable to offer similar images of these distributions at this time.
To add a 32-bit Slice, head to the Slicemanager and click 'Add a Slice' and select your preferred distro from the image dropdown.
As always, we are available 24/7 in our chatroom should you have any questions.
Cheers, Paul
Edit: I clarified the sentence regarding 32-bit ELF support as it was possibly causing some confusion
March 1st, 2010 at 06:42 PM Mike
This is really great news, thanks so much!!
March 1st, 2010 at 07:04 PM Joe
A step in the right direction. Once pure 32 bit images are offered, I will surely be back to slicehost due to the great customer service experience I have had in the past.
March 1st, 2010 at 09:42 PM David
Another supposed great announcement that has no benefit to my slices.
March 1st, 2010 at 10:29 PM Josh
Why not just offer pure 32-bit without munging the setup needlessly? Xen supports running 32-bit Dom-U’s assuming your underlying hardware supports it, which I’d be surprised to find out if the majority of slicehost’s hardware doesn’t support this, I know that of the four slices I work with, half have processors which would support full 32-bit domU’s even with an underlying 64-bit dom0.
Not that I really have any need for a 32-bit slice, just curious as to the reasoning behind this approach.
March 2nd, 2010 at 06:39 PM seth vidal
The explanation for centos/fedora images is a bit unclear to me. I work on the fedora project and our infrastructure team uses 64bit xen and kvm hosts to run 32bit fedora and centos/rhel images… If you’d like to talk about it a bit – let me know – or come by #fedora-admin on freenode.
March 2nd, 2010 at 08:41 PM Josh
I was also unsure of what was meant by the CentOS/RHEL explanation, as I run numerous Xen servers that are 64-bit dom0’s with a variety of 64-bit and 32-bit CentOS domUs running the CentOS provided xen kernels.
March 2nd, 2010 at 09:12 PM PickledOnion
Thanks for the feedback on the 32-bit images.
The Systems Team have engaged a couple of the responders and I hope we can work together to produce an even better image repository.
Again, your feedback and time is appreciated.
Cheers, Paul
March 4th, 2010 at 04:49 AM Annoyed
@David… Give up and go home! They’re just giving us an update – they never said this was a BIG announcement
March 4th, 2010 at 07:05 PM David
@Annoyed… Done, thanks for the extra push.
March 8th, 2010 at 09:40 PM John
That’s the best news I’ve heard all day!
March 22nd, 2010 at 08:53 AM Anna
Thank you! Been waiting for this one for a while!