How to Check if Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora Redhat, CentOS) is 32-bit or 64-bit

The number of CPU instruction sets have kept growing, and likewise for the operating systems which is able to run and supp ORT on more than one CPU system architecture. For example, a Linux OS such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Redhat, Linux Mint, Debian, Arch Linux, OpenSUSE and CentOS can run on Int El or AMD CPU in either 32-bit or 64-bit flavor. In addition, some Linux also supports ARM CPUs in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

So something it's important to check and verify the edition and flavor of operating system been installed on the computer, Before performing tasks such as installing new applications and kernel upgrade, so then the matching version could be ins Talled to ensure proper compatibility.

If you want to know whether the Linux running on your machine is of 32-bit or 64-bit variant, and also the type of MICROPR Ocessor instruction sets architecture of the machine, run the following command on the CLI:

uname -a

The result would be something similar to any of the following lines:

Linux server.mydigitallife.info 2.6.32-431.5.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Feb 07 07:07:07 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Or,

Linux Middlebin-Ubuntu 2.6.38-10-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 28 15:05:41 UTC 2011 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

Or,

Linux host 3.13.7-1-ARCH #1 PREEMPT Mon Mar 8 07:07:07 MDT 2012 armv5tel GNU/Linux

Uname is the command of used in Linux to print the name, version and other details about the Operating system running on it. The version of Linux kernel is installed on the system can is deduced from the result above, for example:

I386–32-bit kernel
X86_64–64-bit kernel
Armv5tel–armv5

The possible values including i386; i686; x86_64; IA64; Alpha AMD64; Arm Armeb; Armel; Hppa M32R; m68k; MIPs Mipsel PowerPC PPC64; s390; s390x; SH3; Sh3eb; SH4; SH4EB; SPARC and etc.

There may is multiple entries as uname returns values for many variables such as system kernel, operating system (or Distr ibution), machine, processor, hardware platform and more. Normally all values should is the same, but some instruction sets architecture does provide backward compatibility, which means it supports more than one variant of operating systems. For example, one can install the 32-bit or 64-bit operating system on a x64 CPU processor. Just Select the one with highest comparability.

If you want specific information on your system, you can use different switch option to return just the information Want, instead of everything about your system.

Here's the options that can apply to uname command:

-S,--kernel-name [print the kernel name]-n,--nodename [Print the network node hostname]-r,--kernel-release [Print the K Ernel release]-v,--kernel-version [print the kernel version]-m,--machine [Print the machine hardware name]-p,--processo R [Print the processor type or "Unknown"]-i,--hardware-platform [Print the hardware platform or "unknown"]-o,--operating -system [Print the operating system]

How to Check if Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora Redhat, CentOS) is 32-bit or 64-bit