As I’ve just discovered, it’s not possible (or is it?) to install a .bin file on a 64 bit version ubuntu .

Do not dispair however,  there are 32 bit libraries that can be installed to make it happen.

Firstly make sure you try to install the application first by doing

chmod +x file.bin
./file.bin   or sh ./file.bin

If it requires it then use sudo sh ./file.bin to start the application. If you’ve been doing that and it fails saying

“Unable to execute ./file.bin: No such file or directory”

or if you did sh ./file.bin and it says

“sh ./qt.bin  ./qt.bin: 1: Syntax error: “(” unexpected”

The problem varies but the speclations floating around have suggested that the 32 bit app you’re trying to install is searching
for a file that doesn’t exist….hmmm. Doesn’t make sense but okay.

The fix

to get around this you can install the 32 bit libs by doing

sudo apt-get install ia32libs

If it says unable to find the libraries etc etc then do the following

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Its the same libraries but for some reason it exists with two different names depending on your repository location (Really? Pain in the ***.  I’ve tried, if my repo is set to use an EU mirror the file name varies).

Alternatively use the package manager and do a quick search for ia32 and choose it from the list. Make sure you choose the option to install all dependencies!

When that’s all done and installed go back and try to do

sh ./file.bin

and it should now work fine

Ask questions in the comments if you have any problems, I’d be happy to help if I can.