Wubi installs i386 version on AMD Phenom II

[Guest]

Hello everybody!

I'm rather confused about my Kubuntu installation. I'd like to make a wubi install, under Windows 7 (x64), on an AMD Phenom II 955 based system. For some weird reason, wubi downloads and installs the kubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso, and not the kubuntu-9.10-desktop-AMD64.iso. I tried manually downloading the iso file, placing it into the same directory as wubi, and starting the installation. The installer finds the iso, checks it, then goes on to download the i386 version. I went on to check the MD5-sum manually, and found that it was correct. So why does the installer keep on assuming that my architecture is not 64 bit? (Mounting the AMD64 iso and launching the included wubi also downloads the i386 version - which, by the way, fails to install.) Is there any way to force the AMD64 version to install?

Thanks for your help in advance!
(Sorry if I created a pointless thread, I tried searching the forum to no avail.)

[sithlord48]

Re: Wubi installs i386 version on AMD Phenom II

thats a good one, sorry i am not a wubi/windows user so i can't really help there..

would a dual boot work for you?

[Snowhog]

Re: Wubi installs i386 version on AMD Phenom II

So why does the installer keep on assuming that my architecture is not 64 bit?

Having read how wubi functions, it would appear that you might not actually have a 64-bit CPU. I'm not saying you don't, but ...

[askrieger]

Re: Wubi installs i386 version on AMD Phenom II

@snowhog: A quick search at the AMD website indicates that the Phenom II 955 is a "64 bit capable" processor (whatever that means). It may be, however, that WUBI doesn't know that. I don't know how wubi detects the properties of the processor. If I had written the script, I'd have used lshw, but I'd probably have screwed up the script.

@azazel: I think you'll find that even if you use the 32 bit version, you'll still get a feel for Kubuntu. If you really want to find out about your processor: in Kubuntu, (I don't do windows)
1) start a konsole from the K icon
2) enter the command

sudo lshw | grep cpu

3) the output will show a long line or two of capabilities. Somewhere in there you should see something that says "x86-64" (without the quotes). If you don't, read the fine print on the box your processor came in.

That magical incantation runs a program that lists the properties of your hardware. It passes the output to another program that discards everything except lines containing the word "cpu".

[Snowhog]

Re: Wubi installs i386 version on AMD Phenom II

@snowhog: A quick search at the AMD website indicates that the Phenom II 955 is a "64 bit capable" processor (whatever that means).

"capable" of course, doesn't mean that it is operating in 64-bit mode. Not sure how that could be, but ...

Wubi apparently has a detection scheme that it uses to detect the processor in order to determine if it is 32- or 64-bit. It downloads the appropriate .iso for installation. If one has a 64-bit processor, whether Intel or AMD, it downloads/installs the 64-bit .iso. That's as much as I know about Wubi.

[Guest]

Re: Wubi installs i386 version on AMD Phenom II

@sithlord48:

I'm a bit more careful about GRUB than I should be since a Debian distro one messed up my partition table, so I had to use some obscure back-up utilities and some hex-editing to get my data back. So I'd be more comfortable with a virtual partition, just because of my paranoia. :P

Snowhog, askrieger:

I'll get the lshw results, though my benchmark tool (everest) clearly states that my instruction set is "x86, x86-64, MMX, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE3", and my processor's box also mentions "AMD64 Architecture".

The real fun is that the Ubuntu AMD64 version installs without any problems, yet Kubuntu fails to do so. (Even the 32 bit version dies with a "Requested Range Not Satisfiable" message.) When installing the kde-desktop package, the perfectly functional gnome environment also gives in, and I only get console.

So I'm guessing it's something KDE specific. Pity, though, I'm more of a KDE-person than a Gnome person, not to mention that I'm developing software in QT, which is natively a KDE application, so I feel some guilt for running it from Gnome.

Any further ideas are welcome, if you need further info for that, feel free to ask.

[sithlord48]

Re: Wubi installs i386 version on AMD Phenom II

my processor is also an AMD Phenom II (940be, am2+). the 64 bit version runs just fine. i have also run 64 bit versions of win7 on my processor as well as other distros in 64 bit

The real fun is that the Ubuntu AMD64 version installs without any problems, yet Kubuntu fails to do so. (Even the 32 bit version dies with a "Requested Range Not Satisfiable" message.) When installing the kde-desktop package, the perfectly functional gnome environment also gives in, and I only get console.

you could always turn ubuntu in to kubuntu its not that hard, install the kubuntu-desktop package, (making kdm default when asked) then remove gnome's packages