I have a binary executable that's a part of an academic software package I've downloaded. I can't seem to get it to run, and I don't have access to the source code. I've tried the following things. Any thoughts?
Many thanks.
$ chmod +x random_cell
$ ./random_cell
-bash: ./random_cell: cannot execute binary file
$ file random_cell
random_cell: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.4, not stripped
$ ldd random_cell
random_cell: is not an object file
$ uname -m
x86_64
I ran into the same problem and this is the answer I came up with
$ ~/opt/Linux-3.11.0-i686/svn/bin/svn --version
-bash: /home/fennellb/opt/Linux-3.11.0-i686/svn/bin/svn: cannot execute binary file
$ file ~/opt/Linux-3.11.0-i686/svn/bin/svn
/home/fennellb/opt/Linux-3.11.0-i686/svn/bin/svn: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.18, BuildID[sha1]=0x6b38ac5ac15af4334712b9bacc6646cabaefde9a, not stripped
$ find /bin /usr/bin -maxdepth 1 -type f -print0 |
xargs -0 file |
awk 'BEGIN {c32=0;c64=0}
/ELF 64-bit/ {c64++}
/ELF 32-bit/ {c32++}
END {print "ELF 32-bit count "c32;
print "ELF 64-bit count "c64}'
ELF 32-bit count 1639
ELF 64-bit count 0
Well... that explains it!
Possible solutions: check to see if your CPU supports 64-bit Linux:
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo | egrep '^(model name|cpu MH|vend)'
cpu MHz : 1200.000
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2140 @ 1.60GHz
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
(then Google the exact CPU name to find its specifications)
Then upgrade to a 64-bit Linux (if you can) - Download Ubuntu Desktop
One Alternative to run 64-bit code on 32-bit Linux is to use an true cpu emulator like qemu/bochs - Bochs - OSDev Wiki - with a 64-bit Linux image (or VM like xen if your CPU supports it).
Another is to ask your software provider to recompile for 32-bit.
(For me I am going to recompile from source.)