64-bitArchitecturedebinstallationversions
Sometimes I want to download programs that are not proposed in the Software Center but only on the developer's website, like for example World of Goo Demo. But the website proposes only one .deb download link usable by Ubuntu.
Is it possible for me to use this file, even if I use an old version of Ubuntu or an architecture that still remains more or less exotic, as a 64-bit one? If yes, can I encounter any difficulties running the program, once installed?
The command is uname -m.
Open a terminal try using uname -m command. This should show you the OS architecture.
If it gives any output like ix86, where x is 3,4,5 or 6, Your OS is 32bit.
You can also see the Ubuntu architecture by Opening "System monitor" and going in the System tab.
Difference between hardware platform and Processor type:
There is a difference between the hardware platform (which is given by -i switch) to the CPU type (given by -p switch).
The hardware platform tells us which architecture the kernel is built for (may be optimized though for later versions). It can be a i386.
However the Processor type refers to the actual processor type of your machine such as i686 (P4 and later builds).
Thanks to Schotty of this this page. Here is an answer from Unix stackexchange site on the same topic, though I didn't find the language enough clear (completely my fault).
Create a script, in my example foo
#!/bin/bash
# Create a temporary folder in /tmp
dir=$(mktemp -d)
# Extract the deb file
dpkg -x "$1" "$dir"
printf "\n%s\n\n" "$1"
# Show the package architecture information
dpkg --info $1 | \
awk '/Architecture/ {printf "defined dpkg architecture is:\t%s\n", $2}'
# Show the executable format via find and awk for ELF
find $dir -type f -exec file -b {} \; | \
sort -u | \
awk '/ELF/ {printf "executable format is: \t\t%s\n", $0}'
rm -rf "$dir"
exit 0
Usage
./foo <deb_file>
Example
% ./foo qtox_1.1\~git20150707.cfeeb03-97_i386.deb
qtox_1.1~git20150707.cfeeb03-97_i386.deb
defined dpkg architecture is: i386
executable format is : ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, stripped
Best Answer
I encountered the following two errors when trying to install .deb files:
So no, sometimes if you want to install a Jaunty Package in Maverick (for example) it won't install, because it depends on an OLDER Version of a package than the Version available in Maverick. (however, there are tools to change dependecies-list within a deb file...)
I don't know about the architecture problem, as normally a 64-bit system should support 32bit binaries (however, I don't think it works the other way around)