Ubuntu... downgrade? (64-bit -> 32-bit)

[Benjamin Scott]

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Ken D'Ambrosio <ken at jots.org> wrote:
> Googling around didn't come up with anything that simple -- but I did find
> something: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/package-database-rebuild.html

  Ahh.... that was the missing puzzle piece.  Thanks!

  Below is a series of commands that appear to get things started.  It
promptly wants to install 88 MB of packages, because it of course
thinks there are no packages installed.  I figure I can hack the
"status" file to lie to it about things that will come from the host
system (like apt and the kernel).

  You'll need to change "CHANGEME" to your preferred local mirror.

  There's nothing in the below about architecture, but I think if you add

	     APT::Architecture "i386";

to the apt.conf then you'll get what you want.

-------------------- begin commands --------------------
mkdir -p /usr/unstable/etc/apt

echo 'RootDir "/usr/unstable";' >> /usr/unstable/etc/apt/apt.conf

echo 'deb http://CHANGEME/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib' >>
/usr/unstable/etc/apt/sources.list

mkdir -p /usr/unstable/var/lib/dpkg
mkdir -p /usr/unstable/var/lib/apt/lists/partial
mkdir -p /usr/unstable/var/cache/apt/archives/partial

touch /usr/unstable/var/lib/dpkg/status

mkdir -p /usr/unstable/usr/lib
ln -s ../../../lib/apt /usr/unstable/usr/lib/apt

apt-get -c /usr/unstable/etc/apt/apt.conf update
-------------------- end commands --------------------

-- Ben