Running 64b apps from chrooted 32b (e.g. ktorrent64 from firefox32)

Question

I run arch64 with chroot for some 32 bit applications (did like the wiki http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … bit_system).
I'm new to arch and to 64 bit architecture (just two days!).
I run firefox @ 32bit for flash and java plugins.
When I try to open a file from firefox32, it won't find the application because searches in the 32 bit environment.
For example I want to click on a torrent file and say "open with ktorrent" (where of course ktorrent is installed in the 64 bit environment), or click on a tar.gz and say "open with ark". Let's use this last case as an example.
I succeeded to do it up to a certain point, but I miss the final one, so please help me to find the solution! The basic idea is chrooting from the 32 bit environment to the original 64 bit one.
This is what I did:
1) I created the directory /opt/arch32/opt/arch64 (to say the truth I did'n put the "/opt"s, but I will discuss as if I did to follow the wiki's notations
2) I added a "mount" and an "umount" line to  /etc/rc.d/arch32 rc
#!/bin/bash
. /etc/rc.conf
. /etc/rc.d/functions
case $1 in
start)
stat_busy "Starting Arch32 chroot"
mount --bind /proc /opt/arch32/proc
mount --bind /proc/bus/usb /opt/arch32/proc/bus/usb
mount --bind /dev /opt/arch32/dev
mount --bind /dev/pts /opt/arch32/dev/pts
mount --bind /dev/shm /opt/arch32/dev/shm
mount --bind /sys /opt/arch32/sys
mount --bind /tmp /opt/arch32/tmp
mount --bind /home /opt/arch32/home
mount --bind / /opt/arch32/opt/arch64 #ADDED LINE
add_daemon arch32
stat_done
stop)
stat_busy "Stopping Arch32 chroot"
umount /opt/arch32/proc/bus/usb
umount /opt/arch32/proc
umount /opt/arch32/dev/pts
umount /opt/arch32/dev/shm
umount /opt/arch32/dev
umount /opt/arch32/sys
umount /opt/arch32/tmp
umount /opt/arch32/home
umount /opt/arch32/opt/arch64 # ADDED LINE
rm_daemon arch32
stat_done
restart)
$0 stop
sleep 1
$0 start
echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
esac
exit 0
3) I installed dchroot inside the 32bit environment and then added the line
arch64 /opt/arch64
to /opt/arch32/etc/dchroot.conf
4) I created and made executable the script /opt/arch32/usr/bin/ark64
#!/bin/bash
dchroot -d "ark $@"
Now, this system works from the command line, for example I can do, from inside the 32bit environment,
ark64 file.tar.gz
but I don't know how to let it work from firefox. I guess I have something to change in the ark64 script, but I don't know what.
Another issue: if I do "chroot /opt/arch32" and then "chroot /opt/arch64", my home directory is empty. Maybe I should have added some other mount and umount lines? I'm a little scared of this, because I don't know what will happen of the content of my home directory when I stop the arch32 daemon.
Last edited by alcafar (2008-03-26 13:44:10)

Answer 1

Ibex wrote:Is it possible to do on a .tar.gz "open with" and then select the ark64 executable script? So that firefox tries to open the .tar.gz with the ark64 script.
Yes, it is.
Respect to my previous post, I modified /etc/rc.d/arch32 to mount also the home directory in the arch64 chroot (I have /home on a different partition than /):
#!/bin/bash
. /etc/rc.conf
. /etc/rc.d/functions
case $1 in
start)
stat_busy "Starting Arch32 chroot"
mount --bind /proc /opt/arch32/proc
mount --bind /proc/bus/usb /opt/arch32/proc/bus/usb
mount --bind /dev /opt/arch32/dev
mount --bind /dev/pts /opt/arch32/dev/pts
mount --bind /dev/shm /opt/arch32/dev/shm
mount --bind /sys /opt/arch32/sys
mount --bind /tmp /opt/arch32/tmp
mount --bind /home /opt/arch32/home
mount --bind / /opt/arch32/opt/arch64
mount --bind /home /opt/arch32/opt/arch64/home
add_daemon arch32
stat_done
stop)
stat_busy "Stopping Arch32 chroot"
umount /opt/arch32/proc/bus/usb
umount /opt/arch32/proc
umount /opt/arch32/dev/pts
umount /opt/arch32/dev/shm
umount /opt/arch32/dev
umount /opt/arch32/sys
umount /opt/arch32/tmp
umount /opt/arch32/home
umount /opt/arch32/opt/arch64
rm_daemon arch32
stat_done
restart)
$0 stop
sleep 1
$0 start
echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
esac
exit 0
I created an executable script /opt/arch32/usr/bin/run64.sh
#!/bin/bash
cmd=`basename $0`
for i in "$@"
do
cmd="$cmd '$i'"
done
exec dchroot -d "$cmd"
and created some links
ln -s run64.sh ark
ln -s run64.sh ktorrent
ecc.
Now in firefox32 you can do for example on a tar.gz file "open with /usr/bin/ark".
It works also if the file name contain spaces, but not if it contains other characters that need to be escaped in bash, for example [ or ].
It's just a scripting issue now.
I read your other thread about compatibility mode, sounds interesting, I'll read something in the weekend.