As an update to the situation around Canonical planning to drop 32bit support (and Valve saying bye-bye to Ubuntu 19.10+ support), apparently they're not. Instead, the 32bit libraries will be frozen. Are you confused yet? I sure am.
Canonical's Steve Langasek has attempted to clarify the situation. Here's what they said:
I’m sorry that we’ve given anyone the impression that we are “dropping support for i386 applications”. That’s simply not the case. What we are dropping is updates to the i386 libraries, which will be frozen at the 18.04 LTS versions. But there is every intention to ensure that there is a clear story for how i386 applications (including games) can be run on versions of Ubuntu later than 19.10.
That's at least a little better, isn't it? They also said a little further:
[…] since the vast majority of i386-only software is also legacy (closed-source, will never be rebuilt), it also does not generally benefit from newer libraries […]
There's a pretty big difference from not being "included as an architecture", to having them available but frozen and still possible to use, isn't there? It's confusing, since that's not how it was originally explained. This is something that should have been said very clearly from the start.
Perhaps this might not be the epic disaster many people (myself included) thought it might turn out to be. We still have to wait and see how exactly they implement all this, and how it will affect gaming.
There's still going to be confusion and issues though, like upgrading drivers. Touching on that, Langasek said:
32-bit mesa will be available in the Ubuntu 18.04 repository. Note that mesa already gets updates in 18.04 which track the versions from later Ubuntu releases, as part of hardware enablement. If incompatibilities are introduced beyond 20.04 (which is the cutoff for hardware enablement backports for 18.04), we will need to address them on a case-by-case basis.
So it sounds like you're still going to be stuck in some ways. Seems like the proposal is still no good for Wine either (and so Steam Play too).
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I see only two working solutions here:
1. Keep providing up to date x86_32 multiarch (most distros will be doing it in the foreseeable future).
2. Come up with solution to run 32-bit programs, using 64-bit libraries with good performance, no 32-bit libs involved at all.
#2 can be tricky, and until it's ready, #1 should be available. Since Ubuntu can't provide either, gamers should just switch to other distros.
Last edited by Shmerl on 23 June 2019 at 5:14 pm UTC
buckysrevenge Jun 23, 2019
Last edited by buckysrevenge on 23 June 2019 at 4:58 pm UTC
Will people be able to do install newer GPU drivers nevertheless, when the respective 32 bit libs are "frozen"?
Nope, since they can require newer features in the lower stack. The whole stack is interdependent. Think of Mesa periodically bumping their dependencies for its build. That will quickly go bust, once they are frozen.
Even if Ubuntu will address that once in a while "on case by case basis", I doubt it they'll be able to do it for all 32-bit libraries that we care about. Or in the timely manner. So why even bother falling into that pit?
Last edited by Shmerl on 23 June 2019 at 5:16 pm UTC
Why did they test games without 32 bit libs if they never intended to remove them?As their communication, was obviously rather poor even in their own ranks.
The worst thing is that the damage already done, no one will take Canonical seriously after this stupidity.
Just when Linux is becoming more usable and light future , something is coming up and it sends it back to the bottom.
IMHO the impression that Ubuntu is nolonger a reliable desktop system standard has been seeded, and I don't think it's going to be the "default desktop" for much longer. I hope the community as a whole can find a better way forward than relying on Canonical/Ubuntu to develop a base for gaming.
And this statement is still vague enough that it could mean they will use containers or something as a way of including those "frozen 32 bit libraries".
They are backtracking; there is no way this is what they had intended all along.
Totally.
Last edited by Beamboom on 23 June 2019 at 5:16 pm UTC
abelthorne Jun 23, 2019
Why did they test games without 32 bit libs if they never intended to remove them?Because they intended to and with the shitstorm they're facing, they're trying to backtrack by saying there's been a misunderstanding.
Even if they freeze the libs to the version from 18.04, it'll break APT, as it can only install 32 bit libs if they match the 64 bit version. So, they'll probably provide them as snap packages and it'll be a mess.
thelimeydragon Jun 23, 2019
That is not backing out, it is a clarification of their plans. They never said that 32 bit programs would not be able tun run any more. A lot of us are worried that the new ways will be Inferior to what we have today, especially in regard to how complicated it will be for users. And I still are.
A lot of online publication and posters claimed that it would be impossible, but this is Linux not Mac or Windows so there will always be ways for users to do what they want differently than their distribution providers. Do not believe everything you read.
But distributions are about convenience, after all we could all do a Linux from scratch installation and not use any distribution after all. So if they make it a lot harder for users we should go elsewhere.
This also firmly stomps on the occasional passing thought of "now that Unity's dead, I wonder if it's worthing switchig back to Ubuntu?" That's a big, tall glass of nope.
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