just a comment about this procedure
i shopped around the interweb before jumping in to this
apt purge `dpkg --get-selections |grep :i386 |awk '{print $1}'`
dpkg --remove-architecture i386
this what i settled on
but apt wanted to remove a passel of non-i386 packages that i really liked
and install a bunch of packages i really did not care for
apt seems to be using some sort of bizarre ai
it takes my input as a suggestion and does what hell it wants to
aptitude purge `dpkg --get-selections |grep :i386 |awk '{print $1}'`
did exactly what i needed
it only removed the i386 packages and left the rest alone
as a result i just removed the packages and rebooted
your mileage may vary
