Mono(tm) Binary Kernel Support for Linux¶
To configure Linux to automatically execute Mono-based .NET binaries (in the form of .exe files) without the need to use the mono CLR wrapper, you can use the BINFMT_MISC kernel support.
This will allow you to execute Mono-based .NET binaries just like any other program after you have done the following:
You MUST FIRST install the Mono CLR support, either by downloading a binary package, a source tarball or by installing from CVS. Binary packages for several distributions can be found at:
Instructions for compiling Mono can be found at:
Once the Mono CLR support has been installed, just check that
/usr/bin/mono
(which could be located elsewhere, for example/usr/local/bin/mono
) is working.You have to compile BINFMT_MISC either as a module or into the kernel (
CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC
) and set it up properly. If you choose to compile it as a module, you will have to insert it manually with modprobe/insmod, as kmod cannot be easily supported with binfmt_misc. Read the filebinfmt_misc.txt
in this directory to know more about the configuration process.Add the following entries to
/etc/rc.local
or similar script to be run at system startup:# Insert BINFMT_MISC module into the kernel if [ ! -e /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register ]; then /sbin/modprobe binfmt_misc # Some distributions, like Fedora Core, perform # the following command automatically when the # binfmt_misc module is loaded into the kernel # or during normal boot up (systemd-based systems). # Thus, it is possible that the following line # is not needed at all. mount -t binfmt_misc none /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc fi # Register support for .NET CLR binaries if [ -e /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register ]; then # Replace /usr/bin/mono with the correct pathname to # the Mono CLR runtime (usually /usr/local/bin/mono # when compiling from sources or CVS). echo ':CLR:M::MZ::/usr/bin/mono:' > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register else echo "No binfmt_misc support" exit 1 fi
Check that
.exe
binaries can be ran without the need of a wrapper script, simply by launching the.exe
file directly from a command prompt, for example:/usr/bin/xsd.exe
Note
If this fails with a permission denied error, check that the
.exe
file has execute permissions.