Re: How to run old linux code (32bit) on a current Ubuntu system (64bit)?

["Carlos O'Donell" <carlos at systemhalted dot org>]

On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 4:47 PM, Peng Yu <pengyu.ut@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have some legacy binary code ("y"). When I run it on a current 64bit
> ubuntu system, I get the following errors. Do you know an easy way to
> get it running on my current 64bit Ubuntu system? Thanks.

AFAIK you did everything that you had to do...

> ~$ cat /etc/issue
> Ubuntu 13.04 \n \l
>
> ~$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

... this installs a 32-bit libc.

> ~$ file y
> y: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV),
> dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.0.0, not
> stripped
> ~$ ./y
> ./y: relocation error: ./y: symbol errno, version GLIBC_2.0 not
> defined in file libc.so.6 with link time reference

This is most likely because application `y' incorrectly defined
errno as `extern int errno;' which is invalid ISO C and breaks
when glibc switches errno to thread-local storage in later
versions.

If your `y' had correctly used `#include <errno.h>' and then
used errno everything would have continued to function.

The simplest options are:

(a) Contact your vendor for `y' and get a new fixed version
      of `y'.

(b) Install an old chroot and run `y' inside that chroot, or
      better yet run `y' in a VM of an old distribution.

Cheers,
Carlos.