What is 32 bit and 64 bit linux

How To Know If You Have 32 Bit or 64 Bit Computer in Linux and Windows

Last updated August 15, 2020 By Abhishek Prakash 45 Comments

Brief: This quick tip shows you how to check whether your computer is 32-bit or 64-bit. You can also check if your system can support 64-bit or not.

Do I have a 32-bit system or 64-bit system? How to tell if my computer is 32-bit or 64-bit? How to find out if my system is 64 bit capable or not? Am I running 32-bit Ubuntu or 64-bit Ubuntu? Am I running 32-bit Ubuntu on a 64-bit CPU? Do I have 32- or 64-bit Windows?

These are some common questions that users often wonder about. Finding out whether a computer is 32-bit or 64-bit is fairly simple. Before we see how to tell whether your computer is 32-bit or 64-bit, first let’s see the difference between the two systems.

32-bit vs 64-bit Systems: What’s the difference?

Processors in the early 1990s used 32-bit architecture. This means that their data bus had the capacity to handle 32 bits at a time. As the technology grew, 64-bit processors came on the scene.

These newer processors have a data bus width of 64 bits. This means they’re at least twice as fast as their 32-bit counterparts. To use the capabilities of 64-bit processors, operating systems began to release 64-bit versions.

One thing to remember is that a 64-bit processor can support either a 32-bit or a 64-bit OS but a 32-bit processor can only run a 32-bit OS.

If you bought your computer in the last 7-8 years, you should have a 64-bit system. Don’t worry, I won’t force you to dig up and see when you bought your computer.

Read more about 32-bit vs 64-bit here.

So now, you’ve learned these few things:

• Your computer can have either a 32-bit or a 64-bit processor
• Your operating system can be 32-bit or 64-bit
• A computer with a 64-bit processor can run both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems
• A computer with a 32-bit processor cannot run 64-bit operating systems

Now that you know the basics, let’s see how to find out whether you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit system on both Windows and Linux.

How to know if your computer is 32-bit or 64-bit on Windows

Getting this information is fairly easy on Windows. Here’s how to do it in two easy steps.

Go to Windows Explorer, right click on This PC and then select Properties.

You’ll see the system information on the next screen. In here, you should look for System Type.

As you can see in the image above, it says “64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor”.

Which means that I have the 64-bit Windows operating system installed on a 64-bit CPU.

That’s how it works on Windows. Now let me show you how to find out whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit system on Linux.

How to know whether your computer is 32-bit or 64-bit on Linux

If you’re using Ubuntu or any other form of Linux, it’s still easy to find out whether your system is 32-bit or 64-bit. Mind that we’re talking about the processor here, not the OS itself.

Open a terminal and run the following command:

You should see a result like this:

You need to look for the line that starts with CPU op-mode. As you can see in the above result, my CPU can support 32-bit and 64-bit. This means I have a 64-bit CPU.

If you see only 32-bit under CPU op-mode, you have a 32-bit system.

How to tell if Ubuntu is 32- or 64-bit

So, we just saw how to find out whether our system is 32 bit or 64-bit. But how can you learn whether the Ubuntu you installed on your system is 32-bit or 64-bit?

I mean, a 64-bit system can support both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. So if you have a 64-bit system, it’s better (and recommended) to install a 64-bit OS.

To check whether the installed Ubuntu OS is 32-bit or 64-bit, we’ll use the same command we used in the previous section:

In the result, look for the line starting with Architecture. This will tell you the OS architecture.

• x86, i686 or i386 means 32-bit Linux
• x86_64 , amd64 or x64 means 64-bit Linux

In my case, I had x86_64 in the result, which means I have 64-bit Ubuntu installed.

Alternatively, you can use this command that we saw in an older article about finding your Ubuntu Unity version:

The result will be x86, i686, i386, x86_64, x64, etc. And you can easily work out the OS architecture from it.

You can also use the arch command:

The output will indicate whether your installed Linux system is 32-bit or 64-bit.

I hope this quick post helped you find out whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit CPU and a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system.

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is my linux ARM 32 or 64 bit?

under an intel I know I can look at the outcome of uname -m to know if my OS is 32 or 64 bit, but under ARM this gives:

that I’m on a 32-bit OS, but how can I know this in an easier way?

6 Answers 6

There are several gradations, since you can run a 32-bit or mixed operating system on a 64-bit-capable CPU. See 64-bit kernel, but all 32-bit ELF executable running processes, how is this? for a detailed discussion (written for x86, but most of it applies to arm as well).

You can find the processor model in /proc/cpuinfo . For example:

ARMv7 (and below) is 32-bit. ARMv8 introduces the 64-bit instruction set.

If you want to see whether your system supports 64-bit binaries, check the kernel architecture:

On a 64-bit processor, you’d see a string starting with armv8 (or above) if the uname process itself is a 32-bit process, or aarch64 if it’s a 64-bit process. (See also https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45125516/possible-values-for-uname-m)

As richard points out, armv7 variants are all 32-bit, so there is no redundant label armv7-32 , etc.

On a linux system, you can easily, although not truly definitively, check by examining a common executable:

I say «not definitively» because it is possible to run 32-bit executables on a 64-bit system.

There does not appear to be anything foolproof in /proc or /sys ; the output from /proc/cpuinfo may provide some significant clues. If for some reason you need an automated check, creating a table mapped to the «model name» field seems like one potentially sound method (other fields, including «model», «cpu family», etc. look optional — they don’t appear at all for me on a Broadcom 2708 ARMv6 processor).

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In LINUX determine if a .a library/archive 32-bit or 64-bit?

We distribute in Linux a static lib in both 64-bit and 32-bit versions. When troubleshooting a customer, I would like my diagnostic shell script to quickly eliminate the issue by checking the .a archive file to detetmine whether it is 32 or 64 bit. The methods that occur to me are less than elegant:

extract a .o member and ask the «file» command (e.g., ELF 32-bit etc)

start including a dummy member coded to indicate, e.g. 32bit.o/64bit.o and use «ar -t» to check

I have tried «strings xyz.a | grep 32» but this doesn’t work well over versions. Not a heartbreaker problem, but if you know of an elegant solution, I would like to know.

5 Answers 5

objdump seems like the best way:

The simplest way is to use the file command.

Just use the file command; i.e. file library.so

oops, that missing sed means that it was displaying to many items.

Just in an answer:

How it’s supposed to work:

• nm — get the symbols from the library
• grep — get lines starting with a hex string (address of symbol in file)
• head — get the first line
• sed — remove everything past the whitespace, including the whitespace
• wc — count the number of characters.

In a 32 bit environment, you get addresses made up of 8 hex digits, adding the new line gives you 9 , In a 64bit environment, you get addresses made up of 16 hex digits, adding the new line gives you 17 .

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32-bit vs 64-bit

Granny Sue

Well-Known Member

I’m new here, but have decided Linux is the OS for me. I recently purchased a commercially marketed USB stick with many distros of Linux all ready to use on my computer. The problem is that this USB stick is for 64-bit computers and what I need is 32-bit. Unfortunately, I have 2 old desktop PC’s and a netbook that are all running Windows Vista, 32 bit. Yesterday I attempted to download the Linux mint software to put on these computers. However I used a USB stick that was only two gigs and of course that was insanity because I only got partial downloads.

Obviously, I am very new to all of this. My experience with computers has always been as an end-user so I haven’t used coding or have done very little installations as far as operating system software, so I feel like I’m in over my head. I did manage to set up a raspberry pie with one of the Linux distributions although it was so long ago I don’t remember which distribution I used. I follow the step-by-step instructions and was able to get it up and running with no problems. However, I think that was beginners luck.

The first thing I want to do is get Ubuntu or Mint installed onto these computers then, I will deal with each one separately. There seems to be so many steps inside steps in the installation process that I’m starting to get confused. You’re supposed to download the image, then you’re supposed to verify that the image you downloaded is complete and correct, then you have to attempt to get it put onto your PC. Is there an easy, easy, easy way to do this? I have the time to spare to get this done but if it takes much longer I’m gonna throw up my hands and frustration.

Condobloke

Well-Known Member

G’day Granny Sue, and Welcome to linux.org

First nail down whether the various laptops etc are in fact 32bit or 64 bit

How to Tell If You Have Windows 64-Bit or 32-Bit

Scroll down the page until you come to Windows Vista: 64-bit or 32-bit?

Condobloke . Outback Australian :: LINUX IS THE ANSWER. LINUX MINT used EXCLUSIVELY here.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people that annoy me.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly …. Especially in C19 times.

It has been said that time heals all wounds. I don’t agree. The wounds remain. Time — the mind, protecting its sanity — covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone. Rose Kennedy.

Granny Sue

Well-Known Member

arochester

Moderator

Granny Sue

Well-Known Member

Attachments

Granny Sue

Well-Known Member

darry1966

Well-Known Member

Condobloke

Well-Known Member

Ok thats good. it appears that the pc is indeed 32 bit. (In a way thats bad. because if you had a 64 bit system you would have far more choices). The amount of ram you have is also limiting (2GB)

However. there are still some OS’s running on 32 bit

I have never used 32 bit. but the one I hear the most about is MX LINUX. i have copied and pasted some of its info for you

No doubt others with 32 bit systems will chime in

@poorguy springs to mind

Kernel	Linux 3.16 (Debian Jessie)
Userland	GNU
Reference	https://mxlinux.org/user_manual_mx16/mxum.html#toc-Subsection-1.3

Condobloke . Outback Australian :: LINUX IS THE ANSWER. LINUX MINT used EXCLUSIVELY here.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people that annoy me.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly …. Especially in C19 times.

It has been said that time heals all wounds. I don’t agree. The wounds remain. Time — the mind, protecting its sanity — covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone. Rose Kennedy.

atanere

Well-Known Member

@arochester is right on the money. Your screenshot shows that Windows is 32-bit, and it used to be common for manufacturers to install 32-bit Windows on a 64-bit CPU system. It probably saved them a little money.

Your screenshot shows an Intel E2160, dual-core Pentium. that is a 64-bit CPU, and it came onto the market about 2006-2007. Proof is here and here. So a 64-bit Linux makes many more distros available to you, but you still should consider something a bit «light weight» unless you can/will install more RAM.

Your first post mentions you want to install Mint. try the 64-bit XFCE version as it would be best for the low RAM. A couple other suggestions would be Linux Lite, Peppermint OS, and antiX Linux. as well as MX Linux that @Condobloke mentioned above. These are all very good distros, but some may perform better on your computer than others. That’s why it’s good to check out a few before you settle into any one in particular.

Deleted member 58530

Guest

Here’s your computer.

Compaq Presario SR5433WM Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

I would suggest investing a few dollars in ram and increasing to a minimum of 4.0 gb which can be had from ebay cheaply.

4GB DDR2 PC2-6400 PC 6400 800 Mhz 240Pin LOW DENSITY RAM 2x 2GB Desktop Memory for sale online

By increasing ram you could install 64 bit Linux.
I would also recommend Xfce desktop as it is lighter on system resources then Linux Mint Cinnamon or Ubuntu Gnome desktop.

I would install Peppermint 10 Linux.
I’m running it on 13 year old desktops.

Peppermint 10 Released – Peppermint OS

User’s Guide – Peppermint OS

Peppermint OS – The Linux Desktop OS

Condobloke

Well-Known Member

Condobloke . Outback Australian :: LINUX IS THE ANSWER. LINUX MINT used EXCLUSIVELY here.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people that annoy me.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly …. Especially in C19 times.

It has been said that time heals all wounds. I don’t agree. The wounds remain. Time — the mind, protecting its sanity — covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone. Rose Kennedy.

atanere

Well-Known Member

RAM amount is not stopping you from using 64-bit Linux. Your best choice is 64-bit on any distro that you decide to install. Support for 32-bit systems is falling year after year. you shouldn’t use a 32-bit Linux unless you absolutely have to, and you don’t.

Condobloke

Well-Known Member

Condobloke . Outback Australian :: LINUX IS THE ANSWER. LINUX MINT used EXCLUSIVELY here.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people that annoy me.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly …. Especially in C19 times.

It has been said that time heals all wounds. I don’t agree. The wounds remain. Time — the mind, protecting its sanity — covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone. Rose Kennedy.

Condobloke

Well-Known Member

Well, there you go granny Sue. you have input from the best of the best

Read through it all

Whether or not you choose to add extra ram to the desktop is up to you. you can always give the various OS’s a spin first. and then decide !

«Burning» an OS’s iso to a usb and then booting the PC from that is easy. and you can try as many as you like. until you find the one that rocks your boat

More questions ?./. ask away !

Condobloke . Outback Australian :: LINUX IS THE ANSWER. LINUX MINT used EXCLUSIVELY here.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people that annoy me.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly …. Especially in C19 times.

It has been said that time heals all wounds. I don’t agree. The wounds remain. Time — the mind, protecting its sanity — covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone. Rose Kennedy.

Deleted member 58530

Guest

A good way to test drive Linux distros.
Have a read and as many times as needed.

**How to TRY Linux Mint on your Windows PC**

Although written for Linux Mint it works with other mainstream Linux distros.

Linux Mint Documentation.

Linux Mint Installation Guide — Linux Mint Installation Guide documentation

Choose the right edition — Linux Mint Installation Guide documentation

All Versions — Linux Mint

Deleted member 58530

Guest

RAM amount is not stopping you from using 64-bit Linux. Your best choice is 64-bit on any distro that you decide to install. Support for 32-bit systems is falling year after year. you shouldn’t use a 32-bit Linux unless you absolutely have to, and you don’t.

@atanere is right you should be able to install and run 64 bit Linux without any problem.

The advantage of more ram will give you a better browser experience as the browser is the biggest resource user.

atanere

Well-Known Member

We’ve shown that your computer (in the screenshot) is a 64-bit computer. So, maybe the next question is why the USB you bought isn’t working. At the moment, I see 2 possibilities.

1. You don’t know yet how to boot up on the USB. This is how you usually get started with Linux, as described by @poorguy’s links above. You can boot the computer on the USB and run it in «live mode» just as if it were installed on your hard drive (but it’s a bit slower). This is how to test out different distros. When you find what you like, you boot on it again, and then from the live mode you can install it to your hard drive. To boot on a USB, you usually have to interrupt the boot process before Windows starts. When you see the HP or Compaq screen when first starting, you may see some information in one of the corners, like «F1 for boot menu» or «F2 for setup» or something like that. You want the boot menu, but you have to be very fast or else Windows will start. It may take you several tries to get it right.

2. You said there were «many distros, ready to use» on this one USB, and that is very unusual. So honestly, I don’t know what you may have bought. If you do have «many» distros, I do not think you can boot on this USB as I just described. It may be a collection of Linux .iso files (what you normally would download to create a Linux USB). and if so, you would need to pick one, copy it to a computer, and then burn it back to a clean USB so that it would be bootable. The «burn to USB» process has to be done with special software so that the USB is made bootable. In other words, you cannot simply «copy» the .iso to the USB. it will not work. You might tell us more about this USB you bought, show us a website that sells it if you can, so maybe we can understand it better.

Hang in there, @Granny Sue. you can do this. But it is often hard when folks first get started. As you found out already, you usually need a 4GB or larger USB stick to put Linux on. Amazon, Costco, and probably many retailers offer USB drives from 16GB-32GB for about $5 each. Go cheap. you don’t need a large USB drive for this.

Deleted member 58530

Guest

Once you’ve created a bootable media USB or DVD insert the bootable USB or DVD and restart the computer while holding down the Esc key and a boot menu should appear.

From there just use the arrow key to scroll down to the device you are going to boot from and press enter and it should boot into the Live mode.

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