Upgrading 32 bit install to 64 bit?

[rsteinmetz70112]

I have one server that runs 32 bit 16.04 LTS. I know I need to upgrade it to 64 bit I just keep putting it off. It is 64 bit capable so that's not a problem.

I wonder if there is any more or less easy way to do that? I've tried some multi-arch conversion of test machines and they all ended in failure. I actually installed a parallel 64 bit version on separate hard drive but it went foobar and won't boot.

I anticipate people telling me it's impossible. But I thought I'd ask.

[CatKiller]

There is no easy way to do it.

I think it can just about be done the fiddly and time-consuming way, but there's ample opportunity for everything to break in an unrecoverable way.

A fresh install takes about 20 minutes.

[crip720]

Can upgrade to 32 bit 18.04 from 16.04, but will not have that option for 20.04. Changing from 32 bit to 64 best way is a clean install, if you want to be nice to yourself.

[rsteinmetz70112]

The problems with a clean install is that I then need to go through install and configure all of the other bits and pieces of this server.

That will take way longer that 20 minutes.