How do I run 32 bit applications on OpenSuse 64 bit? In other words, how do I install the necessary libraries?
There is an old thread on this but it doesn’t give help. So how hard can this be?
Help is appreciated!
Run the Application from command line and if there are missing Libs, install them by Yast, zypper or rpm…
See your other thread.
Hi
So use YaST or zypper to search for the library name, for example libXext;
zypper se libXext
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
S | Name | Summary | Type
--+---------------------+---------------------------------------------------------+--------
| libXext-devel | Development files for the X11 Common Extensions library | package
| libXext-devel-32bit | Development files for the X11 Common Extensions library | package
i | libXext6 | Common extensions to the X11 protocol | package
| libXext6-32bit | Common extensions to the X11 protocol | package
zypper in libXext6-32bit
So search and install the package with the -32bit extension…
This only works if the 32bit application clearly lists the libs it is missing but that is seldom the case. Many applications simply state that it they are built for an 32bit architecture so cannot run on a 64 bit architecture. So I am looking for a simple script that installs all the normal 32bit libraries.
Regarding the other thread, someone suggested to check the X86 Runtime Environment in Yast/Software Management. This doesn’t work.
On Fri 04 Aug 2017 08:56:02 PM CDT, michielper wrote:
Sauerland;2832793 Wrote:
> Run the Application from command line and if there are missing Libs,
> install them by Yast, zypper or rpm…
>
> See your other thread.
This only works if the 32bit application clearly lists the libs it is
missing but that is seldom the case. Many applications simply state that
it they are built for an 32bit architecture so cannot run on a 64 bit
architecture. So I am looking for a simple script that installs all
the normal 32bit libraries.
Regarding the other thread, someone suggested to check the X86 Runtime
Environment in Yast/Software Management. This doesn’t work.
Hi
If you run the ldd command against the library or binary, you will get a
list of all the libraries and if not found. A process of elimination…
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Alright, this seems promising. But does ldd check if the library is 32 or 64 bit? Because I read that they often have the same name!
I will try ldd binairy | grep found
Hi
It will either be /usr/lib (32 bit) or /usr/lib64…
Ok, this seems to work alright!
- ldd <binairy> | grep found > notfound.txt
- gedit notfound.txt –> make a string of all the libraries that werent found, copy it to the clipboard
- sudo zypper install <paste the string> –> During installation of the libraries, some errors were encountered but the 32bit application did eventually run.
Of course this could be done nicer with awk 
Thanks for the help!
It could be done nicer by telling the maintainer of the application that we live in the 64-bit world already for a considerable time and that action might be required. 
Somewhat peripheral to this discussion: I use WordPerfect 8.1 with Tumbleweed and earlier 64 bit SuSE. (WP8.1 is an unofficial designation for the version of WP8 Linux that was bundled with Corel Linux - Debian). Installation is a bit complicated, involving stripping the tar balls out of the original Debian packages and some manual configurations. The ancient SuSE shlibs5 and type1inst packages are needed.
The installation works, but printing is not available. This goes back to glibc2.3.2 and later versions which are incompatible with WP8’s print support. However, there are some workarounds, e.g. save as a postscript file and send that to the printer, or save as a normal .wpd file and open it in Libre Office, which has an import filter and also recognizes the Type1 fonts installed by WP8.
I have also noticed that installing CrossOver Office will also suck in a lot of 32-bit packages. Unfortunately, the Window$ versions of WP do not run either in the recent CrossOver releases. Probably the best solution, which I have not tried yet, is to run an ancient pre glibc2.3.1 32-bit Linux release that supports WP8 in a virtual machine.