Steve Langasek of Canonical findings with the community for a list of i386 architecture libraries that are planned to be shipped in a layer to ensure compatibility with 32-bit applications in Ubuntu 20.04 "Focal Fossa". Of more than 30 thousand source packages, about 1700 have been selected, for which the formation of 32-bit assemblies for the i386 architecture will continue.
Basically, the list includes libraries used in 32-bit applications that are still in use, as well as dependencies associated with these libraries. In addition, for libraries from the list, it is planned to keep the dependencies used for tests, but use them for cross-testing i386-assemblies of libraries in a 64-bit x86_64 system environment, thus simulating the environment that will be used in real conditions.
Compared to the set of 32-bit libraries shipped with Ubuntu 19.10, Ubuntu 20.04 will additionally include libraries:
- freeglut3
- gstreamer1.0-plugins-base
- libd3dadapter9-mesa
- libgpm2
- libosmesa6
- libtbb2
- libv4l-0
- libva-glx2
- va-driver-all
- vdpau-driver-all
But at the same time, obsolete packages will be excluded from the set, which in Ubuntu 20.04 will no longer be built for current architectures (version-specific packages, such as libperl5.28 and libssl1.0.0, will be replaced with newer ones):
- gcc-8-base
- libhogweed4
- libnettle6
- libperl5.28
- libsensors4
- libssl1.0.0
- libhogweed4
- libigdgmm5
- libllvm8
- libmysqlclient20
- libnettle6
- libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0
- libvpx5
- libx265-165
- wine-devel-i386
- wine-stable-i386
Recall that initially Canonical completely stop building packages for the i386 architecture (including refusing to generate multiarch libraries required to run 32-bit applications in a 64-bit environment), but its decision after studying the comments made by ΠΈ . As a compromise, it was decided to build and ship a separate set of 32-bit packages with the libraries needed to continue running legacy programs that remain 32-bit only or require 32-bit libraries.
The reason for deprecating support for the i386 architecture is the impossibility of maintaining packages at the level of other architectures supported by Ubuntu, for example, due to the unavailability of the latest developments in the field of improving security and protection against fundamental vulnerabilities such as Specter for 32-bit systems. Maintaining a package base for the i386 requires a lot of development and quality control resources, which are not justified by a small user base (the number of i386 systems is estimated at 1% of the total number of installed systems).
Source: opennet.ru