openSuse 16.0 install problem

[Thijs]

Hello, today I installed the brandnew openSuse 16.0 on my computer, where I had already FreeFileSync running under openSuse 15.6. After downloading, unzipping and starting the installation script I get the message:

bash: ./FreeFileSync_14.4_[Donation_Edition]_Install.run: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

Any idea why that is? Maybe a SELinux problem (appArmor is no longer supported in 16.0)?
Thank you for a helpful hint!

[Thijs]

Update: It is does not seem to be related to SELinux, for if I boot with SELinux disabled (selinux=0) the error message remains...

[Zenju]

openSUSE Leap 16 Released - Requires x86-64-v2 CPUs, No x86 32-bit Support By Default

https://www.phoronix.com/news/openSUSE-Leap-16

Oh my, this is unfortunate. The installer is using 32-bit in order to work on 32 bit and 64 bit Linux versions...

[bgstack15]

It is quite common to ship a 32-bit (probably i686) installer/utility to be widely compatible. It's a problem that will plague all software vendors, as 32-bit is now starting to be dropped by major OS providers. I suspect Windows will still be able to read 32-bit binaries for backwards-compatibility requirements, but the Linux world seems quite happy to drop 32-bit packages.

Now, 32-bit runtimes might still be provided for your 64-bit OpenSUSE system. Unfortunately I don't use any OpenSUSE systems, and they have their own packaging philosphy and practices. In the Debian world, you would tell dpkg to --add-architecture i386 and then apt-get update and then apt-get install oldlibname:i386. I don't know what the equivalent might be in OpenSUSE.

[Thijs]

The release notes say:
3.5.12 Removal of 32-bit support #

openSUSE Leap 16.0 only supports 64-bit binaries. Support for 32-bit binaries (or 31-bit binaries on IBM Z) has been removed.

This means that statically-linked 32-bit binaries (or 31-bit binaries on IBM Z) and container images cannot be run anymore. 32-bit syscalls are still enabled by default on arm64, and can be enabled on x86_64 via the kernel parameter ia32_emulation. On other architectures it’s disabled without any option to enable it.

But if 32-bits is going to be dropped anyway, why not forking and making a 64-bit installer/application?

[Zenju]

The next FreeFileSync version is going to ship 32-bit (i686) and 64-bit (x86-64) as separate bundles.

I think it's probably time to sunset 32-bit support on Linux. It currently amounts to only 0.23% of active Linux users (data from last 30 days, according to the stats transmitted by update checks).

[Thijs]

Only 0.23% ? Not a surprise at all, I guess. To me coming up with 2 separate bundles sounds great! Thanks in advance for your effort: worth an extra donation, what? ;-)

[Thijs]

Hi, I want to let you know that I just successfully installer FFS version 14.6 under openSUSE 16.0.
Topic can be closed