Question

I have this program ‘prog’ that I can run with no problem on my server. When attempting to run it on my own machine (64-bit Ubuntu), I get the message:

 bash: ./prog: cannot execute binary file

I’ve made sure all the permissions for all files involved are set to 777 just to be sure it’s not a permissions issue. I believe the server is 32-bit, which may be the reason. However, shouldn’t the 64-bit os be able to run a 32-bit program since it’s just a subset of architectures? If not, is there some emulator I can download for Ubuntu that will allow me to run 32-bit programs if that is indeed the problem?

I understand the ‘cannot execute binary file’ error is somewhat encompassing, so the above is just my guess at why I’m getting the message, but perhaps someone else has another theory?

Thanks again all.

Answer 1

You need the 32-bit (shared) libraries used by prog on your 64-bit computer. Otherwise prog cannot get executed.

Try to install them using

apt-get install ia32-libs

(if prog requires even more libraries, also install their 32-bit versions)

This should do the trick.

Note that if you have the source of prog, it might be more convenient (less installing of 32 bit libraries) to recompile prog on your 64-bit computer.