Bret Busby wrote: > The web page at http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/ states > The port consists of a kernel for all AMD 64bit CPUs with AMD64 > extension and all Intel CPUs with EM64T extension, and a common > 64bit userspace. > > Thus, from the Debian official documentation, it is made clear that > Intel 64 bit CPU's that do not have the "EM64T extension" (whatever > that is and does), have no 64 bit version of Debian Linux available > for them. Intel calls their AMD64 architecture EM64T. It is Intel's name for it. For all practical purposes they are the same thing. However there may be different bugs in them since they were implemented by different design teams. But in particular this is not IA64 which is a completely different 64-bit architecture but one that is often confused by users with AMD64. > Therefore, it is not simply an issue of whether a CPU is a 64 bit > CPU and is therefore compatible with Debian 64 bit Linux; it is made > clear from the official Debian documentation, that only 32 bit > Debian Linux is available from Debian, for all 64 bit CPU's that do > not have the "EM64T extension", No. You are reading too much into that somewhat less-that-perfectly- worded document. Don't cause that much pain for yourself. It is saying that all AMD manufactured cpus of the AMD64 architecture and all Intel manufactured cpus of the EM64T architecture are supported. By saying it that way it is allowing for AMD64 specific opcodes and for EM64T specific opcodes (I recall there are a very few) and the common subset between them (almost all it) and saying that each of those almost the same but very slightly different architectures are supported. They may be slightly different but for all practical purposes for you as a user of them you can think of them as being the same. > and thus, without knowing whether a particular 64 bit Intel (or > compatible) CPU is compatible with the Debian Linux 64 bit version, > there is no point in trying to install that version. No. It doesn't say that at all. If it is a 64-bit AMD cpu then you can install the 64-bit amd64 port. If it is a 64-bit Intel cpu and /not/ IA-64 then you can install the 64-bit amd64 port. If it is a 64-bit Intel cpu and IA-64 (rare, found in high end server hardware) then you can install the IA-64 port. > I believe that, in the circumstances, as Debian has made it clear > that a 64 bit version of Debian Linux, is not available for 64 bit > CPU's, other than a particular subset of 64 bit CPU's, to inform the > public as to what 64 bit CPU's are limited to a 32 bit version of > the operating system, is a reasonable expectation. (I am sure you are going to hate that I chose that particular paragraph to quote in my response. :-) You are making it too difficult. I can't think of any 64-bit capable cpus that are not 64-bit capable. Really! :-) The normal question is how can you tell from a 32-bit system, such as a live cd boot or some such, whether the system is 64-bit capable? The answer to that question is to look at the cpu flags and see if the "lm" flag is present. That is the long-mode flag and if present indicates that the cpu is 64-bit capable. $ grep --color '\<lm\>' /proc/cpuinfo If that flag is present then you are good to go for a 64-bit system. Bob
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