how to know if my system is 32 bit or 64 bit

[syednasirraza]

1. how to know if i have installed 32bit ubuntu on my system or 64bit
2. how to know if my pc architechture is 32 bit or 64 bit.... does it depends on architecture of pc , if it is 32 bit , i have to install 32 bit operating system, and if it is 64 bit, i have to install 64 bit operating system
3. what diference does 32 bit and 64 bit architecture and operating system???

[newb85]

32- vs. 64- bit architecture is a feature of the OS, not the hardware. However, based on what hardware you have, one will probably run better than the other. If the machine came with Windows pre-installed, a good rule of thumb is to mimic the architecture used by Windows.

To see which architecture is being used in Ubuntu, go to the "Details" section of "System Settings".

[mips]

post the output of 1 & 2 here.

1. uname -a
2. lscpu
3. See links below,

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2037106
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2062435

[jrog]

32- vs. 64- bit architecture is a feature of the OS, not the hardware.

Not sure what you mean by this... There is 64-bit hardware and there is 32-bit hardware. Some processors are 64-bit processors, for example, while some aren't.

To answer the OP, you can tell whether the processor in your machine is 64-bit by typing (at the terminal):

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep flags

If you see 'lm' (for long mode) in the list of flags, then your processor is 64-bit.

However, based on what hardware you have, one will probably run better than the other.

A 32-bit processor simply cannot run a 64-bit operating system, so if you have a 32-bit processor, you must run a 32-bit (or lower, but that shouldn't really be considered an option) OS.

On the other hand, if you have 64-bit hardware, you can run either a 32-bit OS or a 64-bit OS. The 64-bit OS will probably give better performance, and it is definitely the best option if you have 4+ GB of RAM.

To see which architecture is being used, go to the "Details" section of "System Settings".

If you're interested in knowing, you can also do this at the terminal by typing:

uname -m

[syednasirraza]

thnx alll and specially jrog - for such a detailed and nice reply.... i have got it

[jrog]

thnx alll and specially jrog - for such a detailed and nice reply.... i have got it

Great, and no problem! If you get the chance, please mark the thread as "solved" using the Thread Tools at the top of the page.