No such file or directory error when executing a binary

Question

I was installing a binary Linux application on Ubuntu 9 10 x86 64  The app shipped with an old version of gzip  1 2 4   that was compiled for a much older kernel     file gzip  gzip  ELF 32-bit LSB executable  Intel 80386  version 1  SYSV   dynamically linked  uses shared libs   for GNU Linux 2 0 0  stripped   I wasn t able to execute this program  If I tried  this happened       gzip -bash    gzip  No such file or directory   ldd was similarly unhappy with this binary     ldd gzip         not a dynamic executable   I m curious  What s the most likely source of this problem  A corrupted file  Or a binary incompatibility due to being built for a much older  kernel libc         Per nos s suggestsions  here s the output of strace   gzip   execve    gzip       gzip        24 vars        -1 ENOENT  No such file or directory  dup 2                                     3 fcntl 3  F GETFL                          0x8002  flags O RDWR O LARGEFILE  fstat 3   st mode S IFCHR 0620  st rdev makedev 136  10           0 mmap NULL  4096  PROT READ PROT WRITE  MAP PRIVATE MAP ANONYMOUS  -1  0    0x7fa8c9eee000 lseek 3  0  SEEK CUR                      -1 ESPIPE  Illegal seek  write 3   strace  exec  No such file or di      40strace  exec  No such file or directory     40 close 3                                   0 munmap 0x7fa8c9eee000  4096               0 exit group 1                                  Here s the output of readelf -a   gzip   ELF Header    Magic    7f 45 4c 46 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    Class                              ELF32   Data                               2 s complement  little endian   Version                            1  current    OS ABI                             UNIX - System V   ABI Version                        0   Type                               EXEC  Executable file    Machine                            Intel 80386   Version                            0x1   Entry point address                0x8048d20   Start of program headers           52  bytes into file    Start of section headers           46852  bytes into file    Flags                              0x0   Size of this header                52  bytes    Size of program headers            32  bytes    Number of program headers          6   Size of section headers            40  bytes    Number of section headers          26   Section header string table index  25  Section Headers     Nr  Name              Type            Addr     Off    Size   ES Flg Lk Inf Al     0                    NULL            00000000 000000 000000 00      0   0  0     1   interp           PROGBITS        080480f4 0000f4 000013 00   A  0   0  1     2   note ABI-tag     NOTE            08048108 000108 000020 00   A  0   0  4     3   hash             HASH            08048128 000128 000178 04   A  4   0  4     4   dynsym           DYNSYM          080482a0 0002a0 000370 10   A  5   1  4     5   dynstr           STRTAB          08048610 000610 0001ee 00   A  0   0  1     6   gnu version      VERSYM          080487fe 0007fe 00006e 02   A  4   0  2     7   gnu version r    VERNEED         0804886c 00086c 000030 00   A  5   1  4     8   rel got          REL             0804889c 00089c 000008 08   A  4  20  4     9   rel bss          REL             080488a4 0008a4 000030 08   A  4  22  4    10   rel plt          REL             080488d4 0008d4 000158 08   A  4  12  4    11   init             PROGBITS        08048a2c 000a2c 00002f 00  AX  0   0  4    12   plt              PROGBITS        08048a5c 000a5c 0002c0 04  AX  0   0  4    13   text             PROGBITS        08048d20 000d20 007f4c 00  AX  0   0 16    14   fini             PROGBITS        08050c6c 008c6c 00001a 00  AX  0   0  4    15   rodata           PROGBITS        08050ca0 008ca0 001751 00   A  0   0 32    16   data             PROGBITS        08053400 00a400 000ab4 00  WA  0   0 32    17   eh frame         PROGBITS        08053eb4 00aeb4 000004 00  WA  0   0  4    18   ctors            PROGBITS        08053eb8 00aeb8 000008 00  WA  0   0  4    19   dtors            PROGBITS        08053ec0 00aec0 000008 00  WA  0   0  4    20   got              PROGBITS        08053ec8 00aec8 0000bc 04  WA  0   0  4    21   dynamic          DYNAMIC         08053f84 00af84 0000a0 08  WA  5   0  4    22   bss              NOBITS          08054040 00b040 050630 00  WA  0   0 32    23   comment          PROGBITS        00000000 00b040 000487 00      0   0  1    24   note             NOTE            00000487 00b4c7 00017c 00      0   0  1    25   shstrtab         STRTAB          00000000 00b643 0000be 00      0   0  1 Key to Flags    W  write   A  alloc   X  execute   M  merge   S  strings    I  info   L  link order   G  group   x  unknown    O  extra OS processing required  o  OS specific   p  processor specific   There are no section groups in this file   Program Headers    Type           Offset   VirtAddr   PhysAddr   FileSiz MemSiz  Flg Align   PHDR           0x000034 0x08048034 0x08048034 0x000c0 0x000c0 R E 0x4   INTERP         0x0000f4 0x080480f4 0x080480f4 0x00013 0x00013 R   0x1        Requesting program interpreter   lib ld-linux so 2    LOAD           0x000000 0x08048000 0x08048000 0x0a3f1 0x0a3f1 R E 0x1000   LOAD           0x00a400 0x08053400 0x08053400 0x00c24 0x51270 RW  0x1000   DYNAMIC        0x00af84 0x08053f84 0x08053f84 0x000a0 0x000a0 RW  0x4   NOTE           0x000108 0x08048108 0x08048108 0x00020 0x00020 R   0x4   Section to Segment mapping    Segment Sections       00         01      interp     02      interp  note ABI-tag  hash  dynsym  dynstr  gnu version  gnu version r  rel got  rel bss  rel plt  init  plt  text  fini  rodata     03      data  eh frame  ctors  dtors  got  dynamic  bss     04      dynamic     05      note ABI-tag   Dynamic section at offset 0xaf84 contains 20 entries    Tag        Type                         Name Value  0x00000001  NEEDED                      Shared library   libc so 6   0x0000000c  INIT                        0x8048a2c  0x0000000d  FINI                        0x8050c6c  0x00000004  HASH                        0x8048128  0x00000005  STRTAB                      0x8048610  0x00000006  SYMTAB                      0x80482a0  0x0000000a  STRSZ                       474  bytes   0x0000000b  SYMENT                      16  bytes   0x00000015  DEBUG                       0x0  0x00000003  PLTGOT                      0x8053ec8  0x00000002  PLTRELSZ                    344  bytes   0x00000014  PLTREL                      REL  0x00000017  JMPREL                      0x80488d4  0x00000011  REL                         0x804889c  0x00000012  RELSZ                       56  bytes   0x00000013  RELENT                      8  bytes   0x6ffffffe  VERNEED                     0x804886c  0x6fffffff  VERNEEDNUM                  1  0x6ffffff0  VERSYM                      0x80487fe  0x00000000  NULL                        0x0  Relocation section   rel got  at offset 0x89c contains 1 entries   Offset     Info    Type            Sym Value  Sym  Name 08053f80  00000106 R 386 GLOB DAT    00000000     gmon start    Relocation section   rel bss  at offset 0x8a4 contains 6 entries   Offset     Info    Type            Sym Value  Sym  Name 08054040  00000505 R 386 COPY        08054040   stdout 08054044  00002705 R 386 COPY        08054044   stderr 08054048  00000805 R 386 COPY        08054048     ctype b 0805404c  00001f05 R 386 COPY        0805404c   stdin 08054050  00001005 R 386 COPY        08054050   optarg 08054054  00001e05 R 386 COPY        08054054   optind  Relocation section   rel plt  at offset 0x8d4 contains 43 entries   Offset     Info    Type            Sym Value  Sym  Name 08053ed4  00000307 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048a6c   chown 08053ed8  00003407 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048a7c     register frame info 08053edc  00001907 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048a8c   write 08053ee0  00002e07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048a9c   fileno 08053ee4  00002607 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048aac   strcmp 08053ee8  00003507 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048abc   close 08053eec  00000d07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048acc   perror 08053ef0  00001a07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048adc   fprintf 08053ef4  00000907 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048aec   getenv 08053ef8  00002007 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048afc   signal 08053efc  00001207 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b0c   fflush 08053f00  00002407 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b1c   unlink 08053f04  00002a07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b2c     errno location 08053f08  00001407 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b3c   chmod 08053f0c  00000e07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b4c   malloc 08053f10  00001d07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b5c     deregister frame inf 08053f14  00002907 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b6c     xstat 08053f18  00000b07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b7c   fgets 08053f1c  00002c07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b8c     fxstat 08053f20  00001507 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048b9c     lxstat 08053f24  00000a07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048bac     strtol internal 08053f28  00002207 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048bbc   strncmp 08053f2c  00003007 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048bcc     libc start main 08053f30  00001c07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048bdc   strcat 08053f34  00000407 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048bec   printf 08053f38  00001307 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048bfc   lseek 08053f3c  00000c07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c0c   memcpy 08053f40  00001607 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c1c   strrchr 08053f44  00001b07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c2c   ctime 08053f48  00000707 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c3c   getopt long 08053f4c  00003207 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c4c   closedir 08053f50  00002507 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c5c   opendir 08053f54  00003107 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c6c   open 08053f58  00002b07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c7c   exit 08053f5c  00001807 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c8c   calloc 08053f60  00002d07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048c9c    IO putc 08053f64  00003607 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048cac   free 08053f68  00000607 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048cbc   utime 08053f6c  00000f07 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048ccc   isatty 08053f70  00002307 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048cdc   strncpy 08053f74  00001107 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048cec   readdir 08053f78  00002107 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048cfc   read 08053f7c  00000207 R 386 JUMP SLOT   08048d0c   strcpy  There are no unwind sections in this file   Symbol table   dynsym  contains 55 entries     Num     Value  Size Type    Bind   Vis      Ndx Name      0  00000000     0 NOTYPE  LOCAL  DEFAULT  UND       1  00000000     0 NOTYPE  WEAK   DEFAULT  UND   gmon start        2  08048d0c    34 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND strcpy GLIBC 2 0  3       3  08048a6c   136 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND chown GLIBC 2 1  2       4  08048bec    41 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND printf GLIBC 2 0  3       5  08054040     4 OBJECT  GLOBAL DEFAULT   22 stdout GLIBC 2 0  3       6  08048cbc    59 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND utime GLIBC 2 0  3       7  08048c3c    43 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND getopt long GLIBC 2 0  3       8  08054048     4 OBJECT  GLOBAL DEFAULT   22   ctype b GLIBC 2 0  3       9  08048aec   224 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND getenv GLIBC 2 0  3      10  08048bac  1106 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND   strtol internal GLIBC 2 0  3      11  08048b7c   202 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND fgets GLIBC 2 0  3      12  08048c0c    62 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND memcpy GLIBC 2 0  3      13  08048acc   111 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND perror GLIBC 2 0  3      14  08048b4c   338 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND malloc GLIBC 2 0  3      15  08048ccc    46 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND isatty GLIBC 2 0  3      16  08054050     4 OBJECT  GLOBAL DEFAULT   22 optarg GLIBC 2 0  3      17  08048cec   142 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND readdir GLIBC 2 0  3      18  08048b0c   152 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND fflush GLIBC 2 0  3      19  08048bfc    61 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND lseek GLIBC 2 0  3      20  08048b3c    59 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND chmod GLIBC 2 0  3      21  08048b9c   314 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND   lxstat GLIBC 2 0  3      22  08048c1c   441 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND strrchr GLIBC 2 0  3      23  0804f608    29 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT   13 basename     24  08048c8c   563 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND calloc GLIBC 2 0  3      25  08048a8c    61 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND write GLIBC 2 0  3      26  08048adc    36 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND fprintf GLIBC 2 0  3      27  08048c2c    35 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND ctime GLIBC 2 0  3      28  08048bdc    49 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND strcat GLIBC 2 0  3      29  08048b5c   162 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND   deregister frame info GLIBC 2 0  3      30  08054054     4 OBJECT  GLOBAL DEFAULT   22 optind GLIBC 2 0  3      31  0805404c     4 OBJECT  GLOBAL DEFAULT   22 stdin GLIBC 2 0  3      32  08048afc   181 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND signal GLIBC 2 0  3      33  08048cfc    61 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND read GLIBC 2 0  3      34  08048bbc   148 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND strncmp GLIBC 2 0  3      35  08048cdc   147 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND strncpy GLIBC 2 0  3      36  08048b1c    55 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND unlink GLIBC 2 0  3      37  08048c5c   412 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND opendir GLIBC 2 0  3      38  08048aac    58 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND strcmp GLIBC 2 0  3      39  08054044     4 OBJECT  GLOBAL DEFAULT   22 stderr GLIBC 2 0  3      40  0804f7fc    40 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT   13 error     41  08048b6c   314 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND   xstat GLIBC 2 0  3      42  08048b2c    27 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND   errno location GLIBC 2 0  3      43  08048c7c   200 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND exit GLIBC 2 0  3      44  08048b8c   314 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND   fxstat GLIBC 2 0  3      45  08048c9c   150 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND  IO putc GLIBC 2 0  3      46  08048a9c    53 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND fileno GLIBC 2 0  3      47  08050ca4     4 OBJECT  GLOBAL DEFAULT   15  IO stdin used     48  08048bcc   261 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT  UND   libc start main GLIBC 2 0  3      49  08048c6c    61 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND open GLIBC 2 0  3      50  08048c4c   112 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND closedir GLIBC 2 0  3      51  0804f824    66 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT   13 warn     52  08048a7c   116 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND   register frame info GLIBC 2 0  3      53  08048abc    55 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND close GLIBC 2 0  3      54  08048cac   202 FUNC    WEAK   DEFAULT  UND free GLIBC 2 0  3   Histogram for bucket list length  total of 37 buckets    Length  Number       of total  Coverage       0  10           27 0         1  14           37 8       25 9        2  4            10 8       40 7        3  4            10 8       63 0        4  5            13 5      100 0   Version symbols section   gnu version  contains 55 entries   Addr  00000000080487fe  Offset  0x0007fe  Link  4   dynsym    000    0   local         0   local         3  GLIBC 2 0      2  GLIBC 2 1      004    3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      008    3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      00c    3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      010    3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      3  GLIBC 2 0      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length 0x00000020    Owner         Data size       Description   GNU           0x00000010      NT GNU ABI TAG  ABI version tag   Notes at offset 0x0000b4c7 with length 0x0000017c    Owner         Data size       Description   01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version    01 01         0x00000000      NT VERSION  version

User · Answer

You get this error when you try to run a 32-bit build on your 64-bit Linux.

Also contrast what file had to say on the binary you tried (ie: 32-bit) with what you get for your /bin/gzip:

$ file /bin/gzip
/bin/gzip: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x64-64, version 1 (SYSV), \
dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.15, stripped

which is what I get on Ubuntu 9.10 for amd64 aka x86_64.

Edit: Your expanded post shows that as the readelf output also reflects a 32-bit build.

User · Answer

I also had problems because my program interpreter was  lib ld-linux so 2 however it was on an embedded device  so I solved the problem by asking gcc to use ls-uClibc instead as follows   -Wl --dynamic-linker  lib ld-uClibc so 0

User · Answer

It is possible that the executable is statically linked and that is why ldd gzip does not see any links - because it isn t  I don t know much about things that far back so I don t know if there would be incompatibilities if libraries are linked in statically  I might expect there to be   I know it s the most obvious thing going and I m sure you ve done it  but chmod  x   gzip  yes  No such file or directory is a classic symptom of that not being done  that s why I mention it

User · Answer

The answer is in this line of the output of readelf -a in the original question     Requesting program interpreter   lib ld-linux so 2    I was missing the  lib ld-linux so 2 file  which is needed to run 32-bit apps  The Ubuntu package that has this file is libc6-i386

User · Answer

I think you re x86-64 install does not have the i386 runtime linker   The ENOENT is probably due to the OS looking for something like  lib ld so 1 or similar  This is typically part of the 32-bit glibc runtime  and while I m not directly familiar with Ubuntu  I would assume they have some sort of 32-bit compatibility package to install   Fortunately gzip only depends on the C library  so that s probably all you ll need to install

User · Answer

readelf -a xxx   INTERP            0x0000000000000238 0x0000000000400238 0x0000000000400238              0x000000000000001c 0x000000000000001c  R      1    Requesting program interpreter   lib64 ld-linux-x86-64 so 2

User · Answer

Well another possible cause of this can be simple line break at end of each line and shebang line If you have been coding in windows IDE its possible that windows has added its own line break at the end of each line and when you try to run it on linux the line break cause problems

User · Answer

Old question  but hopefully this ll help someone else   In my case I was using a toolchain on Ubuntu 12 04 that was built on Ubuntu 10 04  requires GCC 4 1 to build   As most of the libraries have moved to multiarch dirs  it couldn t find ld so  So  make a symlink for it   Check required path     readelf -a arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc   grep interpreter         Requesting program interpreter   lib ld-linux-x86-64 so 2   Create symlink     sudo ln -s  lib x86 64-linux-gnu ld-linux-x86-64 so 2  lib ld-linux-x86-64 so 2  If you re on 32bit  it ll be i386-linux-gnu and not x86 64-linux-gnu

[linux] "No such file or directory" error when executing a binary

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