64 bit Newbie question.

Evening guys,

In the next week I’m looking forward to getting a new laptop and I intend to run OpenSuSE 11 64 on it.

As I have never run any 64 bit OS’s previously, asides from 64 bit OS being able to access more than 3Gb of system memory I know very little (by my own admission) about the abilities of a 64 bit OS. :rolleyes:

Is it possible to run a 32 bit application on a 64 bit version of OpenSuSE without any major drama (I presume that it would work via some form of compatibility layer)?

Unfortunately there are some 32 bit apps that I will not be able to get 64 bit versions of. This means I am left with the option of running 32 bit version of OpenSuSE and not be able to access the full 4Gb of memory that I have in the laptop which I would prefer to avoid.

Apologies if this question is a bit silly but I really don’t know.

Regards,

Andrew.

with the 32 bit version of opensuse they have changed the standard kernel to the pae kernel. With this kernel you can access full 4 gb of memory or up to 64 GB of memory on a 32 bit system.

With the x86_64 version you can run 32 bit applications as long as you install 32 bit compatibility and the 32 bit libraries, version, etc etc of that program.

hope this helps

Thanks idshark!
Good to see that there is an ‘escape route’ if I do need to go to the 32 bit solution.

Is this easy to install via YAST software lists; ie. select ‘32bit compatability’?

Regards,

Andrew.

Yes you can install through yast or in the initial opensuse installation

Awesome!!!

Can’t wait to check it out later this week :cool: :slight_smile:
Thanks for your help IdShark!

In Yast > Software Management > Filter > Patterns > now check 32-bit runtime library
look in the right window & see if everything is checked that you might need.

Accept:)