64 bit install general help
 

Hi all

i just have installed ubuntu on my computer and i have a few questions :)

i chose a live DVD iso from there site and i could not find anything regarding Intel chips just the AMD64 iso's is this going to be a problem for my Intel cpu?

also in regards to 64 bit i realise that I am going to have fiddle with things allot more to make them work but is it REALLY that restrictive? the primary reason i chose 64 bit was because i have 8 gb of RAM and i intend on upgrading to 16 gig in the near future.

also i have an ATI HD6670 2Gb graphics card and i wanted to install the catalyst drivers for it. is there any particular things i need to do to make this work?

thanks,

If you have PAE kernel version it will handle all the RAM available in a 32bits system, but with 64bits system (if your processor is a 64bit one) it will benefit from all the processor power, 64bits system are a bit bigger in size but faster than 32bit.
Here you can find all Ubuntu iso for 12.04 LTS http://releases.ubuntu.com/precise/
Ubuntu set up pretty much everything and detects your hardware like video cards and suggests and installs the proper driver.

Regards

yes my processor is an intel core i5 3470 @ 3.2Ghz so yer is a 64 bit CPU. and according to system settings there are no third party drivers used for my graphics card so i would asume i would have to install these my self. and according to my motherboard manufacturer you need a 64 bit system inorder to use more than 4 gig of ram might be a windows thing (MOBO is ASRock B75 R2.0) my memory is dual channel so one would also asume that you would need 64 bit instructions for this feature to function at full speed. well it all looks like that from what i have read according to the manufacturer.

if im wrong please correct me.

thanks

Just FYI, I have a Core2 Quad, and I use the AMD64 or IA64 packages for Ubuntu and all software where possible. These run fine.

As for your video card, check the manufacturer's website for Linux-based drivers... preferrably for the latest Ubuntu version you can get hold of. For ATI cards, check amd.com (AMD and ATI have merged.) For NVidia-based cards... I think that's rather self-explanatory. ;)

I really doubt that you are able to run IA64 packages (Ubuntu doesn't even have those). IA64 packages are for Intel's Itanium CPUs, which are not compatible with their x86 and x86_64 CPUs. But you are right about the AMD64 packages, these work fine on Intel CPUs, they are only named after AMD because AMD invented the 64 bit extensions for x86 CPUs.

Regarding the videocard, while a manual install of the drivers from the website will work it will break the GUI everytime the kernel is updated, so that a re-install is necessary. On Ubuntu the preferred method to install the drivers is the "Additional Drivers" function, which can in Ubuntu 12.10 be found in the "Software Sources" program.

AMD64 is the correct 64-bit architecture for your 64-bit Intel CPU.

I doubt there would be any extra effort to installing or using 64-bit Linux compared to 32-bit.

Good choice. 32-bit Linux has no problem with 8GB and sometimes even 16GB is OK. But 16GB might be too much for 32-bit Linux. There is probably no good reason for you to prefer 32-bit, so it doesn't take much reason to make 64-bit a better choice (even though either is probably OK).

I don't really know. I think you have a choice of open source or closed source drivers and I think Ubuntu guides you through that fairly well. TobiSGD answered this well: You can get the closed source driver direct from ATI or get it through Ubuntu. Through Ubuntu is better because:

Right, that is a Windows thing. Even with PAE enabled, 32-bit Windows limits you to 3 and a fraction GB of ram. With PAE, 32-bit Linux can support more than 8GB, sometimes as much as 16GB.

False. The dual channel memory is for transfers between main memory and the CPU's internal cache and those transfers function in exactly the same manner, speed and width regardless of whether the CPU is running 32-bit or 64-bit instructions.

Other aspects of your system may be faster or slower in 64-bit mode than they are in 32-bit mode. But the dual channel memory is full speed and width regardless.