OS X Lion Kernel is 32bit, processor is 64bit?

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OS X Lion Kernel is 32bit, processor is 64bit?

It appears that for whatever reason, the kernel on my Mac is 32bit/i386, but the architecture is 64bit:

Darwin system.local 11.3.0 Darwin Kernel Version 11.3.0: Thu Jan 12 18:48:32 PST 2012; root:xnu-1699.24.23~1/RELEASE_I386 i386

Though the kernel itself is a universal binary:

mach_kernel: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures

mach_kernel (for architecture x86_64): Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

mach_kernel (for architecture i386): Mach-O executable i386

Am I mis-reading this or is there something else I need to do to fix it.

Thanks.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on May 11, 2012 11:36 AM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 11, 2012 11:40 AM in response to Forrest

If you have a Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1 then it has only a 32-bit EFI ROM and can only load the 32-bit kernel. However, it runs 64-bit applications just fine.

See OS X v10.6- Macs that use the 64-bit kernel

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