This post is part 5 of the "Let me try to use an AArch64 system as a desktop" series:
Whenever people use a non-x86 system, sooner or later someone asks: “But can it run [name of x86-64 only binary]?”. So, let’s check how to make it possible.
Software stack
When you look for ‘how to run x86-64 apps on Fedora/Arm’, you usually end up with Asahi’s documentation about it.
It is a good thing to read to understand the stack. But if your Arm system runs a 4K page size kernel, then most of that documentation can be skipped. You would not need muvm nor binfmt-dispatcher packages.
What you need is FEX-emu, and nothing else, as it recommends all required components.
To make it easier, I recommend removing some of QEMU packages: dnf remove qemu-static-* so only FEX-emu will be used for running foreign architecture binaries.
Checking emulation
Installing FEX-emu should also install the Fedora/x86-64 rootfs. So, let check if emulation is working:
$ uname -m aarch64 $ FEXBash "uname -m" erofsfuse 1.8.9
... continue reading