On Wed, May 4, 2016 at 12:36 PM, Ron Farrer <canutethegreat@gmail.com> wrote:

Generally, 'uname -m' should report x86_64 for 64-bit (amd64) and i686
for 32-bit (x86).

uname -m did give x86_64, but...

... another check can be 'file /sbin/init' which will report as something along the lines of
"/sbin/init: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV),
dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for
GNU/Linux 2.6.32, stripped"

file /sbin/init gave ELF 32-bit LSB...

So I guess my syrescuecd is 32 bits.

Using the amd64 handbook did the trick with the kernel. Now onto learning about uefi. Thanks for your help!

John