I have a home file server which was previously running on an Athlon XP cpu (Socket A). The operating system on it is Ubuntu 10.04 (LTS), 32-bit, server-flavor. I believe the motherboard has died and am looking for something fairly modern as a replacement, like a Core i3 or Athlon II. If I get 64-bit hardware, will I be able to just plug in the new mobo, cpu, and ram into the machine and boot it up? Would there be other problems with such a large jump in motherboard technology?
If it is possible, I realize that I won't be able to use any of the 64-bit advantages without installing a 64-bit OS. It would just be nice to go in and save configuration files and properly prep for an OS upgrade, since this is an unscheduled hardware upgrade.
Best Answer
The answer is "it depends". Provided your LTS was kept up to date, it is possible the kernel will work and has all the necessary modules to boot up the new hardware. That is is 64bit isn't all that important.
You may as well give it a try. Consider that if it doesn't work, it is the same outcome as not trying - you'll need to install a new OS, and rebuild the services from the data you have on the disk. Depending on what disk setup you have, I would install the new OS on a new disk so you can keep everything intact and migrate the configuration files over as needed.