ml570g2 -- is it capable of running a 64bit os?

[mpmumau]

Hi,

A friend of mine had no more use for an old ML570G2. I've had it running Ubuntu 32 bit for some time. However, I'm trying to figure out if I can install the 64bit version of Ubuntu. As far as I have known thus far, there are four 2.2ghz SINGLE core processors in the server. However, when I check the system info in Webmin, for example, it says I have 8 cores. What I think I understand is that this means I have multi-threaded processors, and that "long mode" is NOT support and therefore I cannot install a 64 bit operating system.

I'm just wondering if someone can check my head on that, as I'm considering purchasing a new server capable of a 64 bit operating system if this NOT the case for this system.

I would be greatly appreciative if someone could explain this to me once and for all just so I know what I'm working with. Thanks in advance for the advice!

[Matti_Kurkela]

One of the easiest ways of getting some hard facts on the CPU of any Linux system is to read the /proc/cpuinfo file.

In your case, the "flags" line on each of your CPUs is likely to include "ht", meaning HyperThreading. This makes each actual CPU core count as 2 cores, so you'll see 8 cores when you actually have 4 single-core CPUs.

Likewise, the support for 64-bit long mode would be indicated with the word "lm" on the "flags" line. If you don't see it, your processors don't support 64-bit operating systems.

If you want to know the meaning of all the words on the "flags" line, find the "cpufeature.h" file in a Linux kernel source code package - it defines the programming constants for the feature flags and has a descriptive comment on each flag.