Can I run 64-bit executables on a 32-bit Linux?

Question

If yes, how?

OS: 32-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client release 5.4 (Tikanga)

Solution 1

Not directly. You need to be running a 64-bit kernel to run 64-bit apps.

You may be able to do it via virtualisation though. VMware supports running 64 bit VMs on a 32 bit host if the CPU(s) have support for the required features (not all 64-bit processors do), and I presume some other virtualisation platforms can do this too. You could try install a 64-bit variant of Linux in a VM on running on top of your existing machine's 32-bit OS and run the 64-bit app in there. This might not be at all convenient though, depending on what you are trying to do with the application.

Solution 2

It is possible if you use an emulator like QEMU with X86_64 support. after installing it you should use qemu-system-x86_64 command to run your executable

Solution 3

No. For a start a 64-bit binary will be linked against 64-bit libraries that will not be present on a 32-bit OS.

Comments

[netvope]

What if I copy all the 64-bit binaries (/lib64, /usr/lib64, etc) to the 32-bit system?

[ashgromnies]

But it should be theoretically possible for an app that speaks the executable binary format in question (PE, ELF, Mach-O) to attempt to rewrite the import table and instructions in the binary... I haven't ever seen such a thing though.