Sunday, March 31, 2013

Installing ia32-libs on Ubuntu 12.04


If you ever wanted to run a 32-bit program in a 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 and encountered package dependency issues while trying to install the ia32-libs via apt-get, don't worry, you are not alone. I myself tried this once when I wanted to install JD-GUI (Java de-compiler) but gave up because I ran out of options that time. This time however I had no choice but to get it to work. Good news is that I manage to to install the necessary libs thanks to post found at [1]. For my own future reference and also for those who might need this I am writing it down here, hope some find it useful, lemme know if its you :)

Downgrade the installed package is follows;

$sudo vi /etc/apt/preferences

and insert the following code;

Package: *       
Pin: release a=precise*
Pin-Priority: 2012

and "write & quite" by doing ":wq!"

Next you can downgrade the packages as follows;

$sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

This operation is going to take a while, so let if complete. Once it is done you can install ia32-libs as follows;

$sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Don't forget to remove the preference file you created, remove it as follows;

$sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences

If not new updated will not be installed. That's it you can now run you 32-bit applications without a issue. Hope this post will help you.!

[1] - http://askubuntu.com/questions/136394/cannot-install-ia32-libs

1 comment:

  1. still I am not able install
    1011363@A2ML03834L:~$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information... Done
    Package ia32-libs is not available, but is referred to by another package.
    This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
    is only available from another source

    E: Package 'ia32-libs' has no installation candidate


    Please help me

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