Since from time to time it is being suggested “to also provide 64 bit builds”… Sounds simple, is simple to build, but maintenance burden adds up.
A wiki page about the state of official 64 bit builds has been created just now:
As per Tails statistics https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/8183 there is only 7% of 32 bit only hardware in use and declining. So Tails might be tempted to drop 32 bit support sometime in future.
In Whonix it may not be that simple because 64 bit capable hardware might run 32 bit operating systems. Does this sound like a non-negligible use case?
Good day,
personally I’d say that, as long as there hasn’t been made a good case against a 32bit version (or for 64bit), I don’t see any reason to provide a 64bit version of Whonix. And at the moment, I haven’t seen anyone provide such a case.
Have a nice day,
Ego
1 Like
I think there are more reasons to go 64 bit only. Hardened TBB is 64 only and would be a welcome security improvement. Compiling packages once for use on host and guest. Parity between all Whonix ports arch - Whonix Qubes being 64.
The writings on the wall for 32 bit support in major distros and such hardware is no longer made for some time.
I don’t want to host 32 and 64 bit Non-Qubes-Builds at the same time. Too much maintenance effort. Complicates the download page. So the only switch for some time in future would be 32 -> 64 bit. Thereby also kernel installation could be simplified. (64 bit kernel only, no more non-pae and pae kernel.)
i think 64-bit only Whonix sounds great idea. specially in nowadays really minor numbers of ppl who have only PCs supporting 32-bit only.
and Whonix by its design which it must work inside a VM = it need resources. and i doubt those 32-bit pcs can provide this amount of resources in a sufficient way (specially if we r talking about GUI-Whonix).
so we r talking about minors of the minors who want 32-bit Whonix only.
but its better to not close the door for 32-bit development , instead we put it in the table of maintainers with red background (which mean it needs to have maintainer for it).
I’m sure this is way down on the list of priorities but for completeness-sake, a 64-bit Whonix can’t be nested within another VirtualBox guest due to no VT-x passthrough. Not sure how important Whonix-within-Whonix is vs. 32-bit Debian-inside-Whonix… Maybe not so much?
Another reason, pre-build grsecurity by coldhakca are amd64 only.
whonix over whonix = mean Tor over Tor. not even safe to use this method.
when did u plan to deprecate 32bit ? or this is just future to do?
The nested virtualizer would not necessarily have to run Whonix. So not always Tor over Tor. The user could even disable networking inside the nested virtualizer for whatever use case that may be useful.
(It was difficult to grasp what you are referring to, but then I saw the “in reply to @entropy”. Please consider quoting what you are replying to.)
For now it’s just a discussion with no final verdict or release goal.
Also Grsecurity RAP feature is 64bit only feature.
The support for pre 64bit hardware is shrinking in Debian:
1 Like
Correction: Its being prepared for i386 too.
Whonix is my last shred of 32-bit for a few years now, and my personal vote would go to 64-bit. That said…
I know from having had multiple layers of performance issues with KVM and VirtualBox I’d never run the Workstation on a CPU from 32-bit era anymore. But Gateway you could.
For reference, OpenSUSE Leap was released as 64-only, comparable to Debian. Your edge cases might look like: Missing 32-bit version of new openSUSE 42.1 :( - Install/Boot/Login - openSUSE Forums - 9 year old Mac that shipped with 32-bit firmware despite 64-bit CPU, Skype, some PCs from 2008-2010 one guy says. They mention Windows 7 users who got 32-bit installs, which I recall happened quite a bit in the beginning.
Biggest question: people in developing countries?
Personally the only use case I could picture for myself is wanting an old clunker to use as Gateway for physical isolation.
Non-Qubes-Whonix 14 official builds will be 64 bit only. (But it will take a while until release so do not hold your breath for it.)
Non-Qubes-Whonix 13 official builds stay 32 bit only. As long as in place apt-get upgrades are possible, 32 bit users can stick with 32 bit, because none of Whonix packages were made 64 bit only. No big efforts will be made to carry around 32 bit users. Users who wish to upgrade to Non-Qubes-Whonix 64 bit need to download and import new Whonix 14 images.
Building Non-Qubes-Whonix 32 bit from source code will still be possible (as deprecation is not required), but not big efforts will be made.
That suits myself, thank you.
I figured it might have waited until Debian Stretch next year.
…
Good news for Non-Qubes-Whonix 13 users. These will be probably able to upgrade in place to Non-Qubes-Whonix 14. Details:
⚓ T688 Change bindp compile to postinstall
(Qubes-Whonix 13 users will be able to upgrade to Qubes-Whonix 14 anyhow.)