Installation of Donation Edition on Raspberry Pi OS x64 (bookworm)

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Posts: 6
Joined: 10 Aug 2025

PlayDoh

I have donated to the FFS org and received the two files (after unzipping); however, when I attempt to install via the CLI, I receive the following error:

sudo sh FreeFileSync_14.4_[Donation_Edition]_Install.run
FreeFileSync_14.4_[Donation_Edition]_Install.run: 1: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

(w/o sudo):
./FreeFileSync_14.4_[Donation_Edition]_Install.run
bash: ./FreeFileSync_14.4_[Donation_Edition]_Install.run: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

If I attempt through the default file manager, nothing happens after the prompt to execute.

Did I donate in vain?

Thanks,

Chris
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Posts: 170
Joined: 5 Jan 2024

John1234

Hi,

It sounds like there's a syntax error in your command line. Unzipping the software and having two files with long names including brackets can cause errors in your syntax if you don't copy and paste correctly. Please check your syntax.

Make sure the file is marked as executable.

Just run

sudo ./file.run

No sh in the command.
Posts: 6
Joined: 10 Aug 2025

PlayDoh

Nice callout; I shortened both to a 3-ltr prefix and still no joy. No c&p, all type & tab. Roger on the +7.
:-)
Posts: 170
Joined: 5 Jan 2024

John1234

Hmm...

Don't know what else to recommend.
Posts: 6
Joined: 10 Aug 2025

PlayDoh

Hmm...

Don't know what else to recommend. John1234, 10 Aug 2025, 10:04
It’s aight, we’ll figure it out sooner or later. I don’t regret donating regardless. 😊
Posts: 346
Joined: 7 Jan 2018

bgstack15

I don't have the donation version, so I cannot check this directly. Can you share the output of:
file /path/to/your/FreeFileSync_14.4_[Donation_Edition]_Install.run
Posts: 1222
Joined: 8 May 2006

therube

(On my end, though I'm on Windows,

C:\out\LINUX>file_gnuwin32.exe -m C:\BIN\UNIX\magic FreeFileSync_14.14_Install.run

FreeFileSync_14.14_Install.run; ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, stripped)

Might (of which I have no clue what it is) "Raspberry Pi OS x64 (bookworm)" need something different/specific ?
Posts: 6
Joined: 10 Aug 2025

PlayDoh

Certainly. Output: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (GNU/Linux), statically linked, stripped

I DL'd the only version they had for Linux. Maybe I can compile and install from the source code if that's available for the Donation Edition (?)
Posts: 6
Joined: 10 Aug 2025

PlayDoh

Understood. Sry, I'm trying to run from a Raspberry Pi 5 (ARM arch); it is my Plex server.
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Posts: 346
Joined: 7 Jan 2018

bgstack15

Raspberry Pi are all ARM architecture, which cannot execute amd64 or even i386/i486/i586/i686 binaries. It appears the installer utility is specifically an i386 executable. That being said, I seem to recall the installer assets that Zenju builds are glorified self-extracting archives. You could probably use 7z or unzip or [your favorite archive utility] to split open this file and find the contents inside. I recall that one of these past installers had a zip, another install.sh-type script, and so on.

Now, unfortunately, even if you go through all this effort, you would still need a armv6 (or is it armv7 these days on a Pi 5?) binary to execute in the long run. I doubt the pre-built binaries (in the open source release or the donation release) include that, so we are not going to get to finish the task.

I have seen various compile steps available on the Internet for Raspberry Pi/ARMv6 architectures, but since we don't have the code for the donation release, we couldn't build that for you.
Posts: 6
Joined: 10 Aug 2025

PlayDoh

Thanks for breaking it down, bgstack15, although the RP5 uses ARM64 (I think you're thinking of the older archs that use 6/7). The 'free edition' is available in the stable GPL release, but is somewhat dated (see below):

freefilesync/oldstable,now 12.0-2 arm64 [installed]
Cross-platform file sync utility (GPL release)

Other than that, I'll try and find a workaround. Again, thank you, everyone!
Posts: 346
Joined: 7 Jan 2018

bgstack15

Ah, I forgot that freefilesync in the Debian repositories (which is the underlying distro for Raspberry Pi OS and Ubuntu and many other distributions) might have had arm64. So yes, those are the GPL release and not the donation release. If Zenju doesn't offer an arm64 build for the donation release, we are "sorry, out of luck" on the donation version.
Posts: 170
Joined: 5 Jan 2024

John1234

Hi,

Here is an arm compatible solution. No graphical user interface. You can create a script that can back up all 15 folder pairs or just one.
Check out rclone. There is a version compiled for your processor.

The only solution I can think of for your Hardware platform and operating system.