How to get specific programs to run under Dapper Drake 64-bit edition

[Hendrik van den Boogaard]

How to get specific programs to run under Dapper Drake 64-bit edition.

Why this thread?
Upgrading to a 64-bit Operating System is not an easy process. Things that were 'normal' or 'common' in the 32-bit world are different when using a 64-bit processor and their equivalent 64-bit applications. You might run into some troubles, as we all did :). This thread is here to help you overcome most common problems when switching to Ubuntu 64-bit.

Feel free to add programs, solutions or workarounds.
Since the thread is sticky I will do my best to think of solutions and include all solutions suggested by 64bit pioneers like you!

Things you might try first
When switching to a 64-bit operating system, there are still programs that are not natively compiled for the AMD64 architecture. The first thing you can try, if there is a i386 version available, is to force the program to install using the i386 architecture. For other architectures this does not work (when you for instance try to force to install a SPARC compiled application) but luckily the AMD64 architecture is backwards compatible with i386, so these 32bit applications should run fine. The downside of this is that some calls to libraries might not work and need their 32-bit version as well. If you omit the 'force architecture' option dpkg will tell you:

dpkg: error processing packagename_i386.deb (--install):
package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)

You can do a forced i386 installation like this:

sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture packagename_i386.deb

Another thing you might try if you already installed an application which does not run, is 'linux32'. This program does not really do anything, except for the fact that if you use it as a wrapper for a program, this program will think the machine type is a i686.

An example of this:

hendrik@hendrik:~$ uname -a
Linux hendrik 2.6.15-25-amd64-k8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jun 14 11:39:18 UTC 2006 x86_64 GNU/Linux
hendrik@hendrik:~$ linux32 uname -a
Linux hendrik 2.6.15-25-amd64-k8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jun 14 11:39:18 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux

'Native' compiled 64-bit programs that do not seem to work from standard repositories

• PartImage - Partimage thinks a DWORD must be 32bit long, so it fails to start and tells me: 'Error: sizeof(DWORD) != 4 (8)'. If you try the i386 version it will give an error about libslang.so.2.

  Solution: Install the standard Ubuntu package and then replace the binary with the statically built version from the PartImage website (so installing the package is only for getting all documentation and other stuff, it's not necessary to get partimage running, therefore you may skip the 'apt-get' line):
  
  

  sudo apt-get install partimage
  cd /tmp
  wget http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/partimage/partimage-0.6.4-static.tar.bz2
  tar xjf partimage-0.6.4-static.tar.bz2
  sudo mv partimage /usr/sbin/

• dvd::rip - Altough all depenencies are found and installed, dvd::rip keeps on complaining that all dependencies are missing. It cannot find transcode and imagemagick, although both were installed automatically with 'apt-get install dvdrip'.

  Solution: I made the changes to the sourcecode as harro0209 pointed me to in his post in this thread. Made a new ubuntu package with a changed version number so the 'old' Ubuntu version won't overwrite it.
  

  sudo apt-get install dvdrip
  cd /tmp
  wget http://bombazyn.mine.nu/Ubuntu/dvdrip_0.52.5-0.1_amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg -i dvdrip_0.52.5-0.1_amd64.deb
  rm ~/.dvdriprc &> /dev/null
  rm ~/.dvdrip/tc_filter_list &> /dev/null

Programs that are not available under Dapper Drakte 64-bit

• Firefox with plugins like Flash/Java/Realplayer - Many 64bit plugins are not available. Kilz set up a nice Howto about running Firefox 32bit in Dapper64 with 32bit plugins.

  You might wanna give this a try instead of the stuff listed below (gnash, nspluginwrapper etc)

• Adobe Acrobat Reader 7 - There does not seem to be a 64 bit edition of Acrobat Reader at all. Trying to apt-get the package will tell you 'E: Package acroread has no installation candidate'.

  Solution: get the i386 package and do a forced-architecture installation:
  

  sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
  cd /tmp
  wget ftp://ftp.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/multiverse/a/acroread/acroread_7.0.1-0.0.ubuntu1_i386.deb
  sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture acroread_7.0.1-0.0.ubuntu1_i386.deb

  or use the 'Debianized' version in the Marillat repository, which has a newer version (AcrobatReader 7.0.5) : ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/...in/a/acroread/
  

• Realplayer - Only RealPlayer 8 is in the standard Dapper 32 repositories. Installing RealPlayer 10 from the Real website however seems to run fine in Dapper 64. I have not really tested this (if a movie needs RealPlayer, it's probably not worth checking it out ;)). You can download the binary installer from: http://www.real.com/linux
• Java 5.0 - I haven't tried this myself, there seem to be repositories available and you can download Java 5 from Sun's website, but the mozilla plugin is not available (yet?). You can however stick with 'j2re1.4 - Blackdown Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition'. That works fine.
• Flashplayer - There is no 64bit version of the flash player available. You can use a 32bit firefox from 'getfirefox.com' and there is a howto available in the Ubuntu Wiki (anyone has a good direct link or howto at hand?).

  Workaround 1: Try to use the nspluginwrapper which makes it possible to use the Macromedia 32bit flash version in 64bit Dapper.
  Follow the howto or see this thread for more information.
  

  Workaround 2: You can use 'gnash' from the RAOF repositories (add these lines to you /etc/apt/sources.list):
  

  deb http://ubuntu.moshen.de/ dapper all
  deb http://raof.dyndns.org/falcon/ dapper eyecandy flash multimedia mythtv all

  then do a
  

  sudo apt-get install gnash gnash-plugin

  Note: Gnash cannot handle all Flash movies properly yet and the plugin seems to be enabled in firefox only. If you use the mozilla-suite (like I do) it won't work (has to do with the 'plugins.ini' file, haven't figured out how to solve it yet)
  

• Mplayer W32codecs - Mplayer works fine, but to use the W32codecs which include WMV9 support, you need to use a 32bit Mplayer with 32bit libraries. A guide how to do this is found in this thread: 'http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=188974'
• Rar - There is no AMD64 package available in the standard repositories

  Solution: Either try my first 'experimental' package (All I did was add 'amd64' to the 'architecture' types in the DEBIAN/control file)
  

  sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
  cd /tmp
  wget http://bombazyn.mine.nu/Ubuntu/rar_3.30-2ubuntu2_amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg -i rar_3.30-2ubuntu2_amd64.deb

  Or use the i386 version:
  

  sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
  cd /tmp
  wget ftp://ftp.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/multiverse/r/rar/rar_3.30-2ubuntu2_i386.deb
  sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture rar_3.30-2ubuntu2_i386.deb

• Opera - Opera is not available in Dapper64. Here's a thread that might help, it mainly says that you need a statically copiled 32bit version of opera: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=75940
• Wine - Wine can give you some troubles. Here's a HowTo that might help: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185557
• Listen - You can use the AMD64 package from the 'Janvitus' repository. More info: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=196093.
• Bonfire - This package is also in the 'Janvitus' repository.
• Matlab 7.0 - Matlab does not understand the AMD64 architecture. It might tell you: 'matlab: No MATLAB bin directory for this machine architecture. ARCH = glnxa64'

  Solution:Use the linux32 wrapper to start Matlab. In my case this looks like this
  

  linux32 /usr/local/Matlab7/bin/matlab

• Wengophone - Users have reported problems with this VOIP application, see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1137372 for more info
• Skype 1.3 - You can get the Debian package for skype 1.3 (which can use ALSA) from this website. When you try to run skype, it may complain about libasound.so.2 and/or libqt-mt.so.3. The trick is to download these libraries and put them in the /usr/lib32 dir. Or just copy the codelines below :). The archive on my site is just a tar.bz2 which includes the actual i386 library files that you need to run Skype. I initially had a problem with my microphone input, but someone else already posted a strange but working solution.

  
  

  cd /tmp
  wget http://skype.com/go/getskype-linux-deb
  sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture skype_debian-1.3.0.53-1_i386.deb
  wget http://bombazyn.mine.nu/Ubuntu/asound32-qtmt32.tar.bz2
  cd /usr/lib32
  sudo tar xjvf /tmp/asound32-qtmt32.tar.bz2

• Wine - I had this info here before, but somehow it got lost. The link to the Wine HowTo is: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185557

Things that do not seem to work when you upgrade from Dapper 32bit to Dapper 64bit

• Upgrading to Thunderbird in my case made my thunderbird crash upon start. Just setting it up again (with my IMAP mailboxes) works fine.
• When using Mozilla calendar plugin (by pressing ctrl-8 in mozilla-suite) it crashes mozilla completely. Removing calendar settings makes the calendar-plugin start again, but after added a caldav calendar it crashes again.
• When installing Revelation, it does not seem to work directly. Please re-start X and that seems to solve the problem.

---
(cr)edits:
12 june 2006 - Included info how to get Adobe acrobat running, thanks Conq
12 june 2006 - Thread is sticky now :), will try to maintain the thread with all latest info
12 june 2006 - Added 'Kilz' howto for Wine
12 june 2006 - Found a way to get partimage running
12 june 2006 - JoWilly gave some more helpful insights, added to this topic
13 june 2006 - Added RAR and made AMD64 package for RAR
14 june 2006 - Changed Calendar plugin and Listen information
14 june 2006 - Made new AMD64 package with fix and install instructions, thanks harro0209 for the info
18 june 2006 - Added link to Wine32 Howto, thanks Kilz
21 june 2006 - Added nswrapper info, thanks JoWilly
26 june 2006 - Added Kilz 'Firefox32' howto
05 july 2006 - Traced down the aMule and Listen problems. I needed nfs-common to support proper file-locking over NFS!
06 july 2006 - Refreshed topic
04 aug 2006 - Added Skype, changed Firefox link (again :S), added Wine (also: again :S)
15 oct 2006 - Long time no see... Changed info about Skype 1.3 beta to Skype 1.3 Final

[FluffyElmo]

Java 5.0 is available by downloading the JVM from Sun (http://java.sun.com) or alternately JRockit from BEA (http://bea.com). Both work perfectly on my system, but you're right, neither include a Mozilla or Webstart plug-in. For desktop apps (Azureus, Eclipse) and Java development use they are both fast and stable.

Raof and Doc.Horn have kindly provided amd64 repositories for XGL/Compiz and other hard to find multimedia packages. I've had XGL running smoothly thanks to them The thread where I was introduced to them is here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=187887 while the repository adresses are:

deb http://ubuntu.moshen.de/ dapper all
deb http://raof.dyndns.org/falcon/ dapper eyecandy flash multimedia mythtv all

[kufford]

what's the status of multimedia codecs that are available for 64bit? anything missing?

what about nvidia drivers?

sorry for message, on pda... ty

[angkor]

I'd like to add mplayer to the list.

I do have a 32bit mplayer now thanks to this guide

[FluffyElmo]

Nvidia drivers aren't a problem, they are in the repository and more recent versions are downloadable from Nvidia. You do have to install them though, the open-source nv drivers are installed by default.

Multimedia codecs are available with the exception of wmv9. It's possible to get them to play but it's rather involved.

What I meant in my previous post was multimedia applications like transcode, ffmpeg and avidemux. There are 64bit versions available, but historically they've been hard to get working. Things have improved with Dapper though and right now since Dapper is current, 3rd party packages will work as well.

[henriquemaia]

Originally Posted by Hendrik van den Boogaard [...] Mplayer W32codecs - Mplayer works fine, but to use the W32codecs which include WMV9 support, you need to use a 32bit Mplayer with 32bit libraries. A guide how to do this is found in this thread: 'http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=62685' [...]

Hi, nice list. I just want to point out that there is a newer and better thread for the Mplayer W32codecs. Here:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=188974

Thanks anyway.

[Hendrik van den Boogaard]

Thanks, I changed the URL to point to that topic.

[tzenes]

wine obviously doesn't work, however somebody posted this work around: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=184050

however, I haven't been able to make it work under dapper.

[fragos]

If you download the AdobeReader_enu-7.0.5-1.i386.tar.gz you will be able to install acroread by using the INSTALL shell script in the tarball. Works fine on my Ubuntu 6.0.6 LTS AMD64. dpkg and the other Debian package managers won't install 32 bit code on a 64 bit machine. The IA32 libraries are required but they should have been installed with Dapper.

[RAOF]

Actually, if anyone wants a program packaged for AMD64, I'd be happy to extend my repository to include it. When I have time