xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man8/compat_linux.8 (revision 4472dbe5e3bd91ef2540bada7a7ca7384627ff9b)
1.\"	$NetBSD: compat_linux.8,v 1.16 2000/04/15 00:16:56 hubertf Exp $
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1995 Frank van der Linden
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32.Dd January 16, 1999
33.Dt COMPAT_LINUX 8
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm compat_linux
37.Nd setup procedure for running Linux binaries
38.Sh DESCRIPTION
39.Nx
40supports running Linux binaries. This only applies to i386 systems
41for now. Both the a.out and ELF binary formats are supported. Most programs
42should work, including the ones that use the Linux SVGAlib. Programs that
43will not work include the Linux /proc filesystem (which is different from
44the optional
45.Nx
46/proc filesystem), and i386-specific calls, such as
47enabling virtual 8086 mode. Currently, sound is only partially
48supported for Linux binaries (they will probably run, depending on
49what Linux sound support features are used).
50
51The Linux compatibility feature is active
52for kernels compiled with the
53.Dv COMPAT_LINUX
54option enabled.
55If support for Linux a.out executables is desired, the
56.Dv EXEC_AOUT
57option should be enabled in addition to
58.Dv COMPAT_LINUX .
59Similarly, if support for Linux 32-bit and/or 64-bit ELF executables
60is desired, the
61.Dv EXEC_ELF32
62and/or
63.Dv EXEC_ELF64
64options (respectively) should be enabled in addition to
65.Dv COMPAT_LINUX .
66.Pp
67A lot of programs are dynamically linked. This means, that you will
68also need the Linux shared libraries that the program depends on, and
69the runtime linker. Also, you will need to create a "shadow root"
70directory for Linux binaries on your
71.Nx
72system. This directory
73is named /emul/linux. Any file operations done by Linux programs
74run under
75.Nx
76will look in this directory first. So, if a Linux
77program opens, for example, /etc/passwd,
78.Nx
79will
80first try to open /emul/linux/etc/passwd, and if that does not exist
81open the 'real' /etc/passwd file. It is recommended that you install
82Linux packages that include configuration files, etc under /emul/linux,
83to avoid naming conflicts with possible
84.Nx
85counterparts. Shared
86libraries should also be installed in the shadow tree.
87.Pp
88Generally, you will need to look for the shared libraries that Linux
89binaries depend on only the first few times that you install a Linux
90program on your
91.Nx
92system. After a while, you will have a sufficient
93set of Linux shared libraries on your system to be able to run newly
94imported Linux binaries without any extra work.
95
96.Ss Setting up shared libraries
97How to get to know which shared libraries Linux binaries need, and where
98to get them? Basically, there are 2 possibilities (when following
99these instructions: you will need to be root on your
100.Nx
101system to
102do the necessary installation steps).
103
104.Bl -tag -width 123 -compact
105.It 1.
106You have access to a Linux system. In this case you can
107temporarily install the binary there, see what shared libraries
108it needs, and copy them to your
109.Nx
110system. Example: you have
111just ftp-ed the Linux binary of Doom. Put it on the Linux
112system you have access to, and check which shared libraries it
113needs by running `ldd linuxxdoom':
114.Pp
115.Bl -tag -width 123 -compact -offset indent
116.It (me@linux) ldd linuxxdoom
117.nf
118libXt.so.3 (DLL Jump 3.1) => /usr/X11/lib/libXt.so.3.1.0
119libX11.so.3 (DLL Jump 3.1) => /usr/X11/lib/libX11.so.3.1.0
120libc.so.4 (DLL Jump 4.5pl26) => /lib/libc.so.4.6.29
121.fi
122.El
123.Pp
124You would need go get all the files from the last column, and
125put them under /emul/linux, with the names in the first column
126as symbolic links pointing to them. This means you eventually have
127these files on your
128.Nx
129system:
130.Pp
131.nf
132/emul/linux/usr/X11/lib/libXt.so.3.1.0
133/emul/linux/usr/X11/lib/libXt.so.3 (symbolic link to the above)
134/emul/linux/usr/X11/lib/libX11.so.3.1.0
135/emul/linux/usr/X11/lib/libX11.so.3 (symbolic link to the above)
136/emul/linux/lib/libc.so.4.6.29
137/emul/linux/lib/libc.so.4 (symbolic link to the above)
138.fi
139.Pp
140Note that if you already have a Linux shared library with a
141matching major revision number to the first column of the 'ldd'
142output, you won't need to copy the file named in the last column
143to your system, the one you already have should work. It is
144advisable to copy the shared library anyway if it is a newer version,
145though. You can remove the old one, as long as you make the symbolic
146link point to the new one. So, if you have these libraries
147on your system:
148.Pp
149.nf
150/emul/linux/lib/libc.so.4.6.27
151/emul/linux/lib/libc.so.4 -> /emul/linux/lib/libc.so.4.6.27
152.fi
153.Pp
154and you find that the ldd output for a new binary you want to
155install is:
156.nf
157.Pp
158libc.so.4 (DLL Jump 4.5pl26) => /lib/libc.so.4.6.29
159.fi
160.Pp
161you won't need to worry about copying /lib/libc.so.4.6.29 too,
162because the program should work fine with the slightly older version.
163You can decide to replace the libc.so anyway, and that should leave
164you with:
165.Pp
166.nf
167/emul/linux/lib/libc.so.4.6.29
168/emul/linux/lib/libc.so.4 -> /emul/linux/lib/libc.so.4.6.29
169.fi
170.Pp
171Please note that the symbolic link mechanism is
172.Em only
173needed for Linux binaries, the
174.Nx
175runtime linker takes care of
176looking for matching major revision numbers itself, you
177don't need to worry about that.
178.Pp
179Finally, you must make sure that you have the Linux runtime linker
180and its config files on your system. You should copy these
181files from the Linux system to their appropriate place on your
182.Nx
183system (in the /emul/linux tree):
184.Pp
185.nf
186/lib/ld.so
187/etc/ld.so.cache
188/etc/ld.so.config
189.fi
190.Pp
191.It 2.
192You don't have access to a Linux system. In that case, you
193should get the extra files you need from various ftp sites.
194Information on where to look for the various files is appended
195below. For now, let's assume you know where to get the files.
196.Pp
197Retrieve the following files (from _one_ ftp site to avoid
198any version mismatches), and install them under /emul/linux
199(i.e. /foo/bar is installed as /emul/linux/foo/bar):
200.Pp
201.nf
202/sbin/ldconfig
203/usr/bin/ldd
204/lib/libc.so.x.y.z
205/lib/ld.so
206.fi
207.Pp
208ldconfig and ldd don't necessarily need to be under /emul/linux,
209you can install them elsewhere in the system too. Just make sure
210they don't conflict with their
211.Nx
212counterparts. A good idea
213would be to install them in /usr/local/bin as ldconfig-linux and
214ldd-linux.
215.Pp
216Create the file /emul/linux/etc/ld.so.conf, containing the
217directories in which the Linux runtime linker should look
218for shared libs. It is a plain text file, containing a directory
219name on each line. /lib and /usr/lib are standard, you could
220add the following:
221.Pp
222.nf
223/usr/X11/lib
224/usr/local/lib
225.fi
226.Pp
227Note that these are mapped to /emul/linux/XXXX by
228.Nx Ns 's
229compat
230code, and should exist as such on your system.
231
232Run the Linux ldconfig program. It should be statically
233linked, so it doesn't need any shared libraries by itself.
234It will create the file /emul/linux/etc/ld.so.cache
235You should rerun the Linux version of the ldconfig program
236each time you add a new shared library.
237.Pp
238You should now be set up for Linux binaries which only need
239a shared libc. You can test this by running the Linux ldd
240on itself. Suppose that you have it installed as ldd-linux, it
241should produce something like:
242.Pp
243.Bl -tag -width 123 -compact -offset indent
244.It (me@netbsd) ldd-linux `which ldd-linux`
245libc.so.4 (DLL Jump 4.5pl26) => /lib/libc.so.4.6.29
246.El
247.Pp
248This being done, you are ready to install new Linux binaries.
249Whenever you install a new Linux program, you should check
250if it needs shared libraries, and if so, whether you have
251them installed in the /emul/linux tree. To do this, you run
252the Linux version ldd on the new program, and watch its output.
253ldd (see also the manual page for
254.Xr ldd 1 )
255will print a list
256of shared libraries that the program depends on, in the
257form  <majorname> (<jumpversion>) => <fullname>.
258.Pp
259If it prints "not found" in stead of <fullname> it means that
260you need an extra library. Which library this is, is shown
261in <majorname>, which will be of the form libXXXX.so.<N>
262You will need to find a libXXXX.so.<N>.<mm> on a Linux ftp site,
263and install it on your system. The XXXX (name) and <N> (major
264revision number) should match; the minor number(s) <mm> are
265less important, though it is advised to take the most
266recent version.
267.Pp
268.It 3.
269For i386, you can simply install the SuSE shared libs using the
270.Pa pkgsrc/emulators/suse_linux
271package(s).
272.El
273.Ss Setting up other files
274Newer version of Linux use /etc/nsswitch.conf for network information,
275such as
276.Tn NIS
277and DNS. You must create or get a valid copy of this file
278and put it in /emul/linux/etc.
279
280.Ss Finding the necessary files.
281[
282.Em Note:
283As of October, 1998, a reasonable set of Linux libraries and other files
284needed for Linux emulation may be obtained from
285.Dl ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/distfiles/linux_lib-2.5.tar.gz
286It is recommended you try to retrieve this file (or a more recent
287version) from ftp.freebsd.org first as this tar file contains
288everything one typically needs and is is very simple to use for this
289application. Failing that, see the instructions below.
290]
291.Pp
292.Em Note:
293the information below is valid as of the time this
294document was written (March, 1995), but certain details
295such as names of ftp sites, directories and distribution names
296may have changed by the time you read this.
297.Pp
298Linux is distributed by several groups that make their own set
299of binaries that they distribute. Each distribution has its own
300name, like "Slackware" or "Yggdrasil". The distributions are
301available on a lot of ftp sites. Sometimes the files are unpacked,
302and you can get the individual files you need, but mostly they
303are stored in distribution sets, usually consisting of subdirectories
304with gzipped tar files in them. The primary ftp sites for the
305distributions are:
306.Pp
307.nf
308sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/distributions
309tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/distributions
310.fi
311.Pp
312Some European mirrors:
313.Pp
314.nf
315ftp.luth.se:/pub/linux/distributions
316ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/linux/distributions
317src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/packages/linux/distributions
318.fi
319.Pp
320For simplicity, let's concentrate on Slackware here. This distribution
321consists of a number of subdirectories, containing separate packages.
322Normally, they're controlled by an install program, but you can
323retrieve files "by hand" too. First of all, you will need to look
324in the "contents" subdir of the distribution. You will find
325a lot of small textfiles here describing the contents of the separate
326packages. The fastest way to look something up is to retrieve all
327the files in the contents subdirectory, and grep through them for the file
328you need. Here is an example of a list of files that you might need, and
329in which contents-file you will find it by grepping through them:
330.Pp
331.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
332Needed                  Package
333
334ld.so                   ldso
335ldconfig                ldso
336ldd                     ldso
337libc.so.4               shlibs
338libX11.so.6.0           xf_lib
339libXt.so.6.0            xf_lib
340libX11.so.3             oldlibs
341libXt.so.3              oldlibs
342.Ed
343.Pp
344So, in this case, you will need the packages ldso, shlibs, xf_lib and oldlibs.
345In each of the contents-files for these packages, look for a line saying
346"PACKAGE LOCATION", it will tell you on which 'disk' the package is,
347in our case it will tell us in which subdirectory we need to look.
348For our example, we would find the following locations:
349.Pp
350.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
351Package                 Location
352
353ldso                    diska2
354shlibs                  diska2
355oldlibs                 diskx6
356xf_lib                  diskx9
357.Ed
358.Pp
359The locations called "diskXX" refer to the "slakware/XX" subdirectories
360of the distribution, others may be found in the "contrib" subdirectory.
361In this case, we could now retrieve the packages we need by retrieving
362the following files (relative to the root of the Slackware distribution
363tree):
364.Pp
365.nf
366slakware/a2/ldso.tgz
367slakware/a2/shlibs.tgz
368slakware/x6/oldlibs/tgz
369slakware/x9/xf_lib.tgz
370.fi
371.Pp
372Extract the files from these gzipped tarfiles in your /emul/linux directory
373(possibly omitting or afterwards removing files you don't need), and you
374are done.
375
376.Ss Programs using SVGAlib
377SVGAlib binaries require some extra care. The pcvt virtual console driver
378has to be in the kernel for them to work, and you will also have to create
379some symbloic links in the /emul/linux/dev directory, namely:
380.Pp
381.nf
382/emul/linux/dev/console -> /dev/tty
383/emul/linux/dev/mouse -> whatever device your mouse is connected to
384/emul/linux/dev/ttyS0 -> /dev/tty00
385/emul/linux/dev/ttyS1 -> /dev/tty01
386.fi
387.Pp
388Be warned: the first link mentioned here makes SVGAlib binaries
389work, but may confuse others, so you may have to remove it again at
390some point.
391.Sh BUGS
392The information about Linux distributions may become outdated.
393.Pp
394Pathnames pointed to by symbolic links are not looked up in the
395shadow root when running a Linux executable. This is not consistent.
396.Pp
397Linux executables can not handle directory offset cookies > 32 bits.
398Should such an offset occur, you will see the message "linux_getdents:
399dir offset too large for emulated program". Currently, this can only
400happen on NFS mounted filesystems, mounted from servers that return
401offsets with information in the upper 32 bits. These errors should
402rarely happen, but can be avoided by mounting this filesystem with offset
403translation enabled. See the
404.Fl X
405option to
406.Xr mount_nfs 8 .
407The
408.Fl 2
409option to
410.Xr mount_nfs 8
411will also have the desired effect, but is less preferable.
412