(which closed before I could get access to the machine to continue investigating), I am still trying to get P-Stat 2.21 (commercial stats package) running in order to open old files and export the raw data so it can be reprocessed by other software. My copy of the (32-bit) 2.21 binary was provided by the successor to P-Stat, Inc, but it won’t execute on anything I can install (typing the command ./p-stat in the directory where it sits gets the response No such file or directory. I now have Mint 19.2 on a sacrificial machine.
I have now soft-linked libm.so.6 to libm.so.5 and libc.so.6 to libc.so.5 and run ldconfig, so now the file command produces
p-stat: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 30836, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib, not stripped, too many notes (256)
so it is recognising the libm.so.5 and libc.so.5 I soft-linked, but trying to execute the binary still produces No such file or directory.
That interpreter /lib from the file command looks wrong, like it can’t find any interpreter, so I checked by doing a file command on a modern system and it said interpreter /lib/ld-linux.so.1 That interpreter isn’t present on either system, so on the old system I saw that /lib/ld-linux.so.2 was soft-linked to /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.27.so, so I soft-linked /lib/ld-linux.so.2 the same way (and re-ran ldconfig).
Umm. Now running the binary gets me Floating point exception (core dumped) but I can’t find any file called core.
While I’m wondering what you expect an Ubuntu derivative to do better than Ubuntu for your case, you seem to not have had the idea yet to use strace in all your digging to see what exact file it is not finding, so I thought I should bring it up…
Because I couldn’t find an early enough version of 32-bit Ubuntu that I could burn to USB that would end up being bootable. I can download and copy the ISOs OK but none of them can be booted from. ubuntu-8.04.4-desktop-i386.iso is just one such. I don’t know how to force this into bootability when I burn it to a USB stick.
strace p-stat does not give any return apart from the known error
strace: Can't stat 'p-stat': No such file or directory
The earlier thread seemed to be clear that the “Can’t find” is a known condition when the execution environment cannot find a suitable interpreter. ldd identified all the requirements except the libm and libc referred to above, and faking those up with soft links to the current versions make ldd acknowledge them but has no effect on the non-executability of the binary.
FYI: If you got a Linux Mint to install; I’m almost 100% sure you’ve got all you need to get Ubuntu to install on that same hardware; unless your Linux Mint was a Debian based (LMDE) system which your details implied it wasn’t
Ubuntu has available old LTS releases with various kernel stacks; eg. I picked 12.04 at random and found ISOs in i386 with the 3.2, 3.5, 3.8, 3.11 & 1.13 kernels available for download; ie. 5 options for a single release… You can use that Linux Mint release detail to give the Ubuntu release & ISO that I’d expect to operate equally (ie. the Ubuntu release that Linux Mint was based on). Whilst the same existed for flavors too, due to EOL the flavor ISOs are harder to find, but many are still available too if you look.
Thanks very much. I don’t particularly want Mint: I just want any flavour of Linux that will install from CD or USB on a Dell Optiplex 745 (or run direct from removable media). Mint just happened to be the closest to hand at the time.
In any case, my question is not about Mint, or even necessarily about Ubuntu (although I thought this would be the most knowledgeable source of information) it’s about how to get an old ELF binary running on a system that has not got the relevant libraries installed [yet].
Oddly, every version of Ubuntu-and-derivatives I have tried so far fails to complete installation to hard disk. Everything works just fine right up to the last screen whereit says to remove the installation medium and press ENTER. At that point they all hang, so removing the CD/USB, and pressing ENTER has no effect, so I assume the last changes never take effect, which is why none of them boot into graphical mode, and the command-line-boot switch has no effect.
I used three different Dell Optiplex 745s in Quality Assurance testing of Ubuntu and flavors, so know for sure they’ll run & install, alas all three of mine suffered from swollen caps & thus they were recycled. I also had six 755s (I’m now down to having only 2 of left), in fact booted a Lubuntu 18.04 LTS ISO I found on Ubuntu’s site earlier today (it was ~equivalent to your mentioned Mint) and booted it on one the 755 underneath the box I’m using now (it shares keyboard & screen with this box) and the ISO booted/worked perfectly… I didn’t install it though; as the 755 I used is dual boot already, and it has two far newer Ubuntu releases on it that both have full support (where as 18.04 is in ESM & thus off-topic here). I do know it ran 18.04 though (and older releases too), as I used that release (& older) years ago when that 755 was my primary machine (ie. then secondary machine; ie. two boxes ago).
I’m aware that 745/755’s were very common models by Dell, and thus the hardware varied significantly during the product runs (as mentioned I had six 755s; yet no two of mine where alike! as is the case with models that are made for a decent amount of time, cheaper components replace the more expensive ones during production; PS2 ports were dropped, then re-added to drop costs & maximize profits etc, plus the varied options that were available when ordered)
I suggest you ask about Ubuntu product/releases that are deemed as being on-topic on this site (Linux Mint and EOL/EOSS releases are not)
FYI: I have used Lubuntu 18.04 from USB with persistence too, in fact installed it to a thumb-drive as the installer (ubiquity) made it easy with that release if I recall correctly; alas not recently.
Thank you, that’s very useful. The most recent OS I had on that 745 (running well) was a flavour called Zorin, but I will poke around the BIOS settings and see if there is anything to see.
[Edit: yes, I set the SATA panel for the CD to “Legacy” and now it recognises the CD from which it just booted ]
I think asking about which Ubuntu releases are on-topic is not going to be useful, as I am specifically dealing with the need for a very old OS.
Zorin isn’t a Ubuntu flavor, for flavors I provided a link earlier in this thread, with them pretty easy to detect as they all have Ubuntu in their name (eg. Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu-MATE, Ubuntu-Budgie, Ubuntu-Cinnamon, Ubuntu Studio, Ubuntu Unity, Ubuntu Kylin), all being downloaded from ubuntu.com, built on Ubuntu infrastructure from the appropriate seed file, which makes them all Ubuntu systems, with each (in the link I provided) providing
a unique way to experience Ubuntu, each with their own choice of default applications and settings
ie. all flavors contain only Ubuntu code, differing only in the packages the install provides out of the box.
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