How to verify the running kernel's architecture?

Rick Stevens rstevens at vitalstream.com
Wed Jan 17 17:38:00 UTC 2007


On Wed, 2007-01-17 at 08:38 -0800, Akemi Yagi wrote:
> On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:09:09 -0300, Marcelo Magno T. Sales wrote:
> 
> > Em Quarta 17 Janeiro 2007 12:48, Akemi Yagi escreveu:
> >> On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:34:20 -0300, Marcelo Magno T. Sales wrote:
> >> > People,
> >> >
> >> > How do I know if the kernel I'm running is the i586 or i686 version?
> >> How about:
> >>
> >> rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz-`uname -r`
> >>
> >> provided you have used rpm to install kernel.
> > 
> > Yes, but unfortunately the architecture is not present in the name of the 
> > kernel packages :(
> > See:
> > [marcelo.sales at sf002698 ~]$ rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz-`uname -r`
> > kernel-2.6.18-1.2849.fc6
> > [marcelo.sales at sf002698 ~]$ rpm -q kernel
> > kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
> > kernel-2.6.18-1.2849.fc6
> 
> OK, there was one piece of info missing.  If you want the architecture
> etc to appear by default, add the following line to
> /etc/rpm/macros.specspo
> 
> %_query_all_fmt %%{name}-%%{version}-%%{release}.%%{arch}

Assuming you installed the kernel via RPM, then you can:

	# grep M586=y /boot/config-(booted-kernel-version)

If you get no output, then you've got a 686 kernel installed and
running.  From a current machine, let's check the Anaconda-installed
kernel...

[root at prophead ~]# grep M586=y /boot/config-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
CONFIG_M586=y
[root at prophead ~]#

So it was a 586 kernel (gee, what a surprise!).  Now, let's check the
kernel I booted:

[root at prophead ~]# uname -r
2.6.18-1.2869.fc6
[root at prophead ~]# grep M586=y /boot/config-`uname -r`
[root at prophead ~]# 

No output from the grep command, so I'm running a 686 kernel.  To do it
the other way:

[root at prophead ~]# grep M686=y /boot/config-`uname -r`
CONFIG_M686=y
[root at prophead ~]# 

Which just proves that M686 IS defined and it's a 686 kernel.  Remember,
it's not only what you have INSTALLED, rather what you've BOOTED that's
important.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-            The gene pool could use a little chlorine.              -
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