[SLUG] How can you find out if an install is 32 or 64 bit?

[Ross Kendall]

Hi Alex,

You are very close there. /uname -a/ (or /uname -m/) will tell you if 
it's 32 or 64 bit and the bit at the end before GNU/Linux is the 
indicator. However /i686/ shows it is 32bit, if it was 64bit it would 
have /x86_64/.

Another command you can use is:

|getconf LONG_BIT|

(the answer being 32 or 64)

It is possible to run 32bit Linux on a 64bit CPU. The above commands 
will only tell you about the currently installed Linux not if the 
processor will support 64bit.

If you want to know about the physical processor instead of the current 
operating system run:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

(if the list of 'flags' has /tm/ it is a 32 bit processor, if the flags 
have /lm/ it's 64bit)

Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Ross.


On 20/05/11 15:48, ALEX ARMANI wrote:
> How can you find out if an install is 32 or 64 bit?
>
> Hi folks. I've got an install of Ubuntu 1o.1o Maverick on my laptop 
> but don't remember if it's a 32 or 64 bit install. Is there an easy 
> way to find out?
> 'uname -a' returns:
>  Linux Anna 2.6.35-22-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Sun Sep 19 20:34:50 UTC 
> 2010 i686 GNU/Linux
>
> Am I correct in thinking that the i686 indicates it is a 64 bit 
> installation?
> Tia, from Alex.
> -- 
>  Alex Armani - Digital Musician
> +44 775 459 5449 - Www.Matrixism.Me.UK
>  www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=513074140
> Add me to your Mafia Wars!
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