I'm currently running an Antix rolling release installed a cpl. years ago, but currently up-2-date w/"Testing". Pbm. is it was originally installed when the box had 4gig and is 32bit (now PAE), but the box has 8gig & 32bit is getting"dated". My more specific question is how to go about doing a fresh install but then being able to automate the (re)installation of all my currently-installed packages! Also I have / home and / var on separate partitions, but not / etc, but have heard that it's pretty safe to tar up your existing / etc / * and replace the newly-installed one with that (to retain all my system settings and customizations)? I have this installed on 2 separate hard drives (one's a backup / test / experimental one that I can swap in lieu of my"production" one that I keep for"backup" / experimenting (with things such as this)!

The"goal" here is to get my system up and running (just as it is now) but as a 64 bit system. The only other catch is I still use Grub Legacy (for simplicity AND b/c it took me days to get everything to play nice w/the Windows-7 (64bit) install (on the production disk), which has all three Windows partitions (including the boot) as NTFS (this meant creating a separate VFAT"/ boot" partition for booting Linux and using the Windows bootloader to select"Windows" or"Linux").

Thanks for any help / tips!

automate the (re)installation of all my currently-installed packages

Do you have a file /usr/share/antiX/installed-packages.txt on your system? If so, it provides a manifest of packages which were preinstalled in the release.
With the command sudo dpkg -l >> /tmp/current-installed-packages.txt you can generate a manifest of the status quo then compare the content of the 2 files...
but hoping to"fully automate reinstallation of added packages" is confounded by the fact that some"earlier preinstalled" packages are probably no longer needed (perhaps no longer available, even) for the current release, and some are probably architecture-specific (may not be relevant, no analagous counterpart, in a 64-bit system).

heard that it's pretty safe to tar up your existing /etc/* and replace the newly-installed one with that

Personally wouldn't risk it. Since ya have a backup onhand..."feel free to test that theory" ?
:bucket-o-popcorn-smiley:

This past discussion might be enlightening toward identifying additional related"gotchas"

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/post34221.html?hilit=reinstall#p34221"
linktext was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/post34221.h ... all#p34221"
====================================

The"goal" here is to get my system up and running (just as it is now) but as a 64 bit system.

I would:
-- install fresh 64-bit
-- mount"old" and refer to /old/usr/share/applications to create a not-yet-installed applications picklist
-- one-by-one, install and configure my apps (good way to discover new config options exposed in new versions)
-- keep"old" onhand (mountable) so that I can diff old-vs-new bits of interest, and/or copy