Win32 executables on ARM host.md

Launch Win32 executables on ARM host with QEMU and Wine

Introduction

This is guide describes the way to run Win32 executable files on ARM host (e.g. tablet) with Ubuntu 18.04 (16.04, 20.04 etc).

Outline

1. Build static qemu-user-i386 on ARM host
2. Type magic strings for Win32 executable file format in binfmts
3. Create system root for x86 Ubuntu system with debootstrap
4. Mount /dev and /sys to x86 system root
5. Chroot to x86 root
6. Install wine
7. Launch Win32 executable with wine

Preparation

Install required packages for Ubuntu on ARM host

apt-get install debootstrap binfmt-support pkg-config libglib2.0-dev libpixman-1-dev

Build QEMU from source

cd /tmp
wget https://download.qemu.org/qemu-2.12.0.tar.xz
tar xJf qemu-2.12.0.tar.xz
cd qemu-2.12.0
./configure --target-list=i386-linux-user --extra-cflags=-marm --static --disable-tools --disable-system
make
cp i386-linux-user/qemu-i386 /usr/bin/qemu-i386-static

Type magic strings for Win32 executable file format to binfmts

update-binfmts --install qemu-i386 /usr/bin/qemu-i386-static --magic '\x7fELF\x01\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x03\x00' --mask '\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xfe\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff'
update-binfmts --install qemu-i486 /usr/bin/qemu-i386-static --magic '\x7fELF\x01\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\x06\x00' --mask '\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xfe\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff'

Create file system root for x86 Ubuntu system in /usr/i386-root

mkdir /usr/i386-root
debootstrap --foreign --arch i386 jessie /usr/i386-root http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian
cp /usr/bin/qemu-i386-static /usr/i386-root/usr/bin
chroot /usr/i386-root /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage

echo 'deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian jessie main contrib non-free' >> /usr/i386-root/etc/apt/sources.list               
echo 'deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian jessie-updates main contrib non-free' >> /usr/i386-root/etc/apt/sources.list
echo 'deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main contrib' >> /usr/i386-root/etc/apt/sources.list
echo 'deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free' >> /usr/i386-root/etc/apt/sources.list
echo 'deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian jessie main contrib non-free' >> /usr/i386-root/etc/apt/sources.list

Mount /dev and /sys subfolders to x86 root

mount -t proc proc /usr/i386-root/proc
mount --rbind /sys /usr/i386-root/sys
mount --bind /dev /usr/i386-root/dev
mount --bind /dev/pts /usr/i386-root/dev/pts

Chroot to x86 filesystem

chroot /usr/i386-root /bin/bash
arch                            # Must type "i686"
passwd                          # Set password for x86 system
export LC_ALL=C

Install Wine

apt-get update
apt-get install locales		
# Later if not configured automatically: dpkg-reconfigure locales        
# Select en_US.UTF-8 (default) and other required locales (e.g. de_DE.UTF-8, etc)
apt-get install wine

# Must type version of Wine
wine --version

mv /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/wine/bin/wine32-preloader /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/wine/bin/wine32-preloader.renamed
mv /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/wine/bin/wine-preloader /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/wine/bin/wine-preloader.renamed

adduser wine --home /home/wine
chown -R wine:wine /home/wine
su wine

# Setup Wine properties if needed
wine winecfg

exit

Launch

mount -t proc proc /usr/i386-root/proc
mount --rbind /sys /usr/i386-root/sys
mount --bind /dev /usr/i386-root/dev
mount --bind /dev/pts /usr/i386-root/dev/pts

chroot /usr/i386-root /bin/bash
su wine -c "LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 'wine /path/to/app.exe'"

Links

• https://habr.com/en/post/484484
  • https://habr.com/en/post/484484/#comment_21152674
  • https://habr.com/en/post/484484/#comment_21165320
• Arch Wiki – PCI passthrough via OVMF: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCI_passthrough_via_OVMF
• binfmts
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binfmt_misc
  • https://manpages.debian.org/testing/binfmt-support/update-binfmts.8.en.html