Ubuntu

Application Problem running on a 64 BIt AMD

Asked by Don Barnett

I have been battling this problem for many days now and suddenly realized that the application always worked on a 32 bit platform. I am running on an AMD64 Athalon. I installed Ubuntu 8.04. The kernel that is installed is 2.6.24-19-generic. I am not sure if this is a 64 bit or 32 bit kernel. ( I am not a linux guru ). How do I tell if this is a 64 bit kernel and if I am running the correct libraries?

The application is Miva which is a script interpreter. It is only available in 32 bit. The symptom is "No such file or directory" when I try to run the script. Having gone through all the permissions a thousand times, the 64 bit question is my best hope for resolution.

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Andy Ruddock
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Andy Ruddock (andy-ruddock) said : 		#1

Open a terminal window, type

uname -a

You'll get the following for a 64-bit installation (desktop, "generic" kernel)
Linux <machinename> 2.6.27-9-generic #1 SMP Thu Nov 20 22:15:32 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

You'll get the following for a 32-bit installation (server, "server" kernel)
Linux <machinename> 2.6.27-9-server #1 SMP Thu Nov 20 22:53:41 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

Note the x86_64 / i686 at the end of the line.

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Don Barnett (donb-farm-home) said : 		#2

Thanks Andy for the reply. It is definitely a x86_64. Now the question is can I down grade this to a 32 bit without having to completely reinstall?

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Best Andy Ruddock (andy-ruddock) said : 		#3

I wouldn't like to try it, the problem being that you'd need to install 32-bit libraries on a 64-bit system which would overwrite the files you're currently using.
It would be significantly easier, and far less risky, to reinstall and restore your data from backup.
There are a couple of ways you can move data around on your hard disk so you don't need to backup and restore - but it's easy to make a cock-up, a backup's always recommended anyway.

It all depends on how your disks are partitioned.

If you want me to document how you can install without removing the data you already have on a single root partition I'd be happy to do that.

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Don Barnett (donb-farm-home) said : 		#4

Thanks Andy Ruddock, that solved my question.