LUM: 32bit packages installed on OES2 64bit

Even though we are running a 64bit version of Linux and OES2, LUM 32bit package is also installed, causing confusion/questions:
"Why was a 32bit package installed on my OES2 64bit?"

 

If we run the following command:

# rpm -qa | grep lum
gnome-volume-manager-1.5.15-26.20novell-lum-32bit-2.2.0.16-0.13
yast2-novell-lum-2.13.2-71
novell-lum-providers-0.5.0-17novell-lum-2.2.0.16-0.13

The novell-lum-2.2.0.16-0.13 is a x86-64 package and novell-lum-32bit-2.2.0.16-0.13 is an i586.

 

There is no problem or conflict between these 32 and 64bit packages. These are implemented as designed. 

 

If we run the following command on any 64bit SuSE Linux box, we will see there are over 100 32bit baselib packages:  

# rpm -qa | grep 32bit

This is a well-designed mechanism to provide 32bit functionality to applications that may be 32bit-only, such as NRM (Novell Remote Manager). Note that even glibc does this, as well as all of the most fundamental OS components.