what is a .bin file?
what would it translate to in the MS world?
is there a way to extract -or whatever it would be called- it inside the GUI?

I think of it as a .exe file. You can usually run it from the command prompt.
And I assume it stands for Binary.

so if its like an .exe, then y cant i just double click to run it?

Terri,

Where are you trying to double click it from? In KDE's file manager/browser called "Konqueror" you can click on binaries to run them if you have permission. Several things may go wrong. You might try to run a binary that's only executable by the root user while logged in as a regular user and it will fail (instead of asking for a root password). Also, depending on what the binary is, it may have acutally run, but it needed to be run from the command line, so you don't see what it did. For example, you can run a shell script (file with a .sh extension) by clicking on it in Konqueror, but you won't see what it does, so if it went wrong, you don't see what happened.

To run .bin files from the command line, use:

./filename

im running gnome. and nothing happens weather i have ownership or not.
ive tried from command prompt too and it doesnt work either. when i use the ./filename i get "cannot execute binary file"
i found something on the web suggesting that i need to install binutils but when i follow the directions to do so, i get "no such file or directory" on the configure. have u ever used binutils?
how does it install?
im logged in as root and in the root directory.

That's bizzare. I've never seen anything like that. Sorry I can't be more helpful. What distro are you using? I might be able to ask a co-worker.

distro?

distribution (redhat,mandrake,suse, etc)

distro is slang for Distribution. In other words, are you running Debian/GNU Linux, Red Hat, Slackware, and what version? (ie, I run the Red Hat 6.2 distribution).

Reason this is important is that although the engine underneath Linux will be fairly consistent, there are differences in the "front end". Kind of like how a Chrysler Town and Country is the same as a Dodge Caravan or Plymouth Voyager deep inside, but there are cosmetic differences.

Cannot execute binary file means that you are making progress - it recognizes that you are trying to run the file, that it is a binary, but for some reason it won't let you.

In case this is something we've dealt with before, what is the .bin file? Also, if you right click the file in Gnome file manager, and click (from memory - I'm at work at not on Linux) Properties, or Permissions, or Open, what information do you get?

notlinus is spot on!

Right-click on the file, select the Permissions Tab and check the "Execute" box. Else you can do this in CL with "chmod a+x <filename>"

You can now execute the binary with "./filename"

Hope this helps :)

[Edited by Trekker on 06-07-2001 at 11:15 PM]