> In my experience there is no way for me to enable 64BIT without somehow
From the patch description when ARCH=x86 were introduced:
# make {allno,allyes,allmod,rand}config [ARCH=...]
option \ host arch | 32bit | 64bit
=====================================================
./. | 32bit | 64bit
ARCH=x86 | 32bit | 32bit
ARCH=i386 | 32bit | 32bit
ARCH=x86_64 | 64bit | 64bit
The general rule are that ARCH= and native architecture
takes precedence over the configuration.
So make ARCH=i386 [whatever] will always build a 32-bit
kernel no matter what the configuration says.
The configuration will be updated to 32-bit if it was
configured to 64-bit and the other way around.
This behaviour is consistent with previous behaviour so
no suprises here.
make ARCH=x86 will per default result in a 32-bit kernel
but as the only ARCH= value x86 allow the user to select
between 32-bit and 64-bit using menuconfig.
So what you see is what was then discussed and considered
optimal functionality.
We shall keep in mind the main target here is to keep
peoples systems running as usual when they shift to
the unified {32 bit / 64 bit} x86 arch.
If you want anything changed then do this with respect to
the intended behaviour as documented above and keep the
setup used by our less kernel skilled testers in mind.
And you do not belong to the "less kernel skilled"
testers base.
Sam
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