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This is an issue that has brought a lot of confusion among users. Even when they think they know the answer, they are often wrong.
It seemed wise to bring it up now in view of the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 and Fedora 13 release. As we all know, many Linux distributions have versions optimized for 64 bit processors. This is where our dilemma arises: Will my machine support 64 bit? Can I download the 32 bit version just in case? And the questions continue ... |
Before beginning to unveil these mysteries, let's clarify that to carry out the tests that we will carry out here it is necessary that you already have Linux (any distro) installed on that machine. Otherwise, you can run these commands by booting Linux from a LiveCD.
Let's start by distinguishing between knowing what your hardware actually supports and what kind of kernel you are running on that hardware.
If you want to know if you hardware supports 64 bit, open a terminal and run:
grep flags / proc / cpuinfo
If lm appears in the result, then it supports 64 bit; if Protected Mode appears, it supports 32 bit; if Real Mode appears, it supports 16 bit.
If you want to know if you current kernel supports 64 bit, open a terminal and run:
uname -a
If the result shows "x86_64 GNU / Linux" that indicates that you are running a 64 bit Linux kernel. Instead, if you see "i386 / i486 / i586 / i686", it is a 32 bit kernel.
When you have to decide which version of Ubuntu, Fedora or any other distro to download, what matters is the first command, since it indicates whether or not your hardware supports 64 bit.. The second command only tells you what kind of kernel you have installed.