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Enabling Multi-Arch
Multi-arch support for dpkg allows users to define foreign architectures that can be installed on the current system. This is easily done with dpkg --add-architecture, as in the example below where the i386 architecture needs to be added to the amd64 system in order to run Windows ap- plications using Wine5. There is a corresponding dpkg --remove-architecture to drop support of a foreign architecture, but it can only be used when no packages of this architecture remain installed.
# dpkg --print-architecture
amd64
# dpkg --print-architecture
amd64
5https://www.winehq.org/
# wine
it looks like wine32 is missing, you should install it. multiarch needs to be enabled first. as root, please execute ”dpkg --add-architecture i386 & apt-get update & apt-get install wine32”
Usage: wine PROGRAM [ARGUMENTS...] Run the specified program wine --help Display this help and exit
wine --version Output version information and exit
# dpkg --add-architecture i386
# dpkg --print-foreign-architectures
i386
# apt update
[...]
# apt install wine32
[...]
Setting up libwine:i386 (1.8.6-5) ...
Setting up vdpau-driver-all:i386 (1.1.1-6) ... Setting up wine32:i386 (1.8.6-5) ...
Setting up libasound2-plugins:i386 (1.1.1-1) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-9)
# wine
Usage: wine PROGRAM [ARGUMENTS...] Run the specified program wine --help Display this help and exit
wine --version Output version information and exit
# dpkg --remove-architecture i386
dpkg: error: cannot remove architecture ’i386’ currently in use by the database
# dpkg --print-foreign-architectures
i386
# wine
it looks like wine32 is missing, you should install it. multiarch needs to be enabled first. as root, please execute ”dpkg --add-architecture i386 & apt-get update & apt-get install wine32”
Usage: wine PROGRAM [ARGUMENTS...] Run the specified program wine --help Display this help and exit
wine --version Output version information and exit
# dpkg --add-architecture i386
# dpkg --print-foreign-architectures
i386
# apt update
[...]
# apt install wine32
[...]
Setting up libwine:i386 (1.8.6-5) ...
Setting up vdpau-driver-all:i386 (1.1.1-6) ... Setting up wine32:i386 (1.8.6-5) ...
Setting up libasound2-plugins:i386 (1.1.1-1) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-9)
# wine
Usage: wine PROGRAM [ARGUMENTS...] Run the specified program wine --help Display this help and exit
wine --version Output version information and exit
# dpkg --remove-architecture i386
dpkg: error: cannot remove architecture ’i386’ currently in use by the database
# dpkg --print-foreign-architectures
i386
APT will automatically detect when dpkg has been configured to support foreign architectures and will start downloading the corresponding Packages files during its update process.
Foreign packages can then be installed with apt install package:architecture.
Using Proprietary i386 There are multiple use cases for multi-arch, but the most popular one is the possibility
Binaries on amd64 to execute 32 bit binaries (i386) on 64 bit systems (amd64), in particular since several popular proprietary applications (like Skype) are only provided in 32 bit versions.
Using Proprietary i386 There are multiple use cases for multi-arch, but the most popular one is the possibility
Binaries on amd64 to execute 32 bit binaries (i386) on 64 bit systems (amd64), in particular since several popular proprietary applications (like Skype) are only provided in 32 bit versions.