Installing amd_64 or i386 packages on raspbian (arm hf)

Question

I am trying to install a driver for an RFID reader on my Raspberry Pi, so that my PC/SC daemon can recognize the reader when I plug it in. Unfortunately, the drivers packaged by the company are only for i386 or amd64 architectures. I am on a Pi, with Raspian installed, so I believe my architecture (armhf) is unable to install those binaries.

I have heard that there are some cross-architecture solutions, but I don't want to break my Pi. Can I simply use dpkg --add-architecture to add amd64 to my supported architectures, and everything will be kosher? Or is this a very bad idea? If so, what is your recommended solution other than "harass the company that made your drivers!"

Answer 1

Can I simply use dpkg --add-architecture to add amd64 to my supported architectures, and everything will be kosher?

No, this will not work.

The Raspberry Pi uses an ARM CPU, which uses the ARM instruction set. That is a different instruction set than that used by i386 and x86-64/amd64. If you use dpkg --add-architecture then you'll probably be able to install the packages, but the CPU will simply not be able to run the installed code.

You will have to find drivers compiled for the ARM CPU, or compile/develop them yourself. Or get supported hardware.

Note:

dpkg --add-architecture is meant for CPUs that support multiple instruction sets. I think it was mainly introduced for x86-64 (i.e. 64bit) CPUs, which also support i386 (i.e. 32bit) instructions. This allows you to install packages compiled for i386 on a system that otherwise uses x86-64 packages.

Answer 2

It might work. I got debian packages to work with the rpi

    dpkg --add-architecture

works with amd64.