In 12.04 LTS, MultiArch support fails to recognize a 32-bit program. Causes Java error to say "file does not exist" when the file is there.

Bug #1187391 reported by Kyle Sager
12
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
eglibc (Ubuntu)
Expired
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

For nearly a year, users of the popular "Arduino" development platform have been chasing their tails quite a bit to get Arduino's program to work on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

I have just reinstalled LTS from scratch on my machine, and the problem appears to be failures in MultiArch to properly recognize 32-bit programs.

Background:
(1) Here is the popular Aduino software page with various packages: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software

(2) The problem that I (and many others from Google Searches) have experienced is in using Arduino's 64-bit package. We install it, and run it; but it has 32-bit architecture files that MultiArch fails to recognize even though earlier versions of Ubuntu did not have a problem with Arduino.

(3) When the 64-bit Arduino package is run, it works fine until the user attempts to compile to the Arduino board, then it delivers the following exact error:
"Cannot run program "/home/user/Downloads/arduino-1.5.2/hardware/tools/g++_arm_none_eabi/bin/arm-none-eabi-g++": java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory"

In spite of the fact that the file is very much present. In other words, Java is saying the file does not even exist when it is sitting right there in plain site.

(4) The reason I report this as a MultiArch problem is as follows: If I (and others it appears) install the older "ia32-libs" program, then, voilà, suddenly the Arduino package does what its supposed to and works beautifully and compiles to the Arduino board just like it used to. Unless I am mistaken, "ia32-libs" is an older Ubuntu package. And Arduino does work with the "ia32-libs" package installed (at least partially). Whenever I install ia32-libs via synaptic or other methods, however, the install does not complete. The install crashes I believe due to conflicting dependencies. Arduino starts working, but from that moment forward my system exhibits a variety of other problems - slowness, crashes, etc. It appears to me that ia32-libs was never intended to be installed on 12.04 LTS...and that MultiArch was intended to replace it; but now users of 32-bit programs that used to work are experiencing the error above and trying anything to get this 32-bit program to work. A Google search of "arm none eabi g++" (or gcc) demonstrates the convoluted hoops users with 64-bit systems are jumping through to try to get it to work. Bottom line seems to be that a 32-bit bridge that used to work does not always work anymore; and users like myself are spending hours trying to fix a program that does not work properly.

(5) The other reason I report this here is I do believe the problem resides with MultiArch since the Arduino program works under other circumstances and with an older Ubuntu 32-bit bridge - ia32-libs; and I believe Ubuntu intends to have a functioning 32-bit bridge, MultiArch, that many users have been having problems with and not reporting to Ubuntu. If this is not the proper place to report, please accept my apology. This seems an important issue because 12.04 is an LTS version and users including myself have been struggling with these needed 32-bit packages for a very long time now.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: multiarch-support 2.15-0ubuntu10.4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-44.69-generic 3.2.44
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-44-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Jun 4 09:11:02 2013
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120823.1)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: eglibc
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
Kyle Sager (kylesager1) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in eglibc (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Kyle Sager (kylesager1) wrote :

I had reported this problem on Arduino (software impacted by this) originally and other users there have experienced this problem. One user replied that they had experienced this with Debian Wheezy and so this is probably a Debian problem.

That interaction was reported here: http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=169178.msg1286623#msg1286623

I thus attempted to report this via Debian's bug system...but Debian's bug reporter, in terminal, actually recognizes the user is on Ubuntu and points the user right back to Ubuntu bug tracking. I do not know how to escalate this in Debian but will try and send an email now.

Revision history for this message
Kyle Sager (kylesager1) wrote :

I sent an email to Debian Bugs for this problem. Don't know if that will get attention or not but its worth a try.

Revision history for this message
Adam Conrad (adconrad) wrote :

Sounds like perhaps what you want is to install libc6:i386?

Adam Conrad (adconrad)
Changed in eglibc (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for eglibc (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in eglibc (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Expired
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