So you’ve just installed Linux Mint, Ubuntu or one of the other Linux distros on your computer and started messing around on the command line.
If I were you, one of the first things I’d be curious about is whether my Linux operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit.
If there’s one more than one way to skin a cat, there are six ways to find out if the Linux operating system on your PC is 32-bit or 64-bit.
So I’d open up the terminal and run any of the below commands.
Understanding Results
Now before I get to the actual commands, let me briefly tell you what the results/output of your commands mean.
If the output of your terminal command is i686 it means you’re running a 32-bit Linux operating system on your PC.
On the other hand, if the command brings up x86_64 it means you’re running a 64-bit Linux operating system on your computer.
i686 – 32-bit kernel
x86_64 – 64-bit kernel
Commands
Let’s now look at six different methods (five via the command line and one via the built-in tools in a distro) to identify whether the Linux OS on your PC is 32-bit or 64-bit.
Methods 1-5 involve running the below self-explanatory commands on the terminal.
1. arch
2. uname -m
3. uname -a
