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Running Solaris IE Binaries in FreeBSD?

Posted by Cliff on from the executable-compatability dept.

Hugh asks: "I work for a company that requires all its employees to use Internet Explorer, but they have no problem with "alternative" operating systems. As such, I would like to run FreeBSD but because there is no BSD IE binary, I would need to run the Solaris binary. BSD has a great Solaris compatibility layer, but I have not had any success getting it to work with IE. I was wondering if anyone else had any input on the topic?"

3 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. ie for sparc by unixbob · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Presumably you are running FreeBSD on an x86 box. How good will your binary compatibility be with IE for Solaris when you can only get it for sparc?

    --
    The Romans didn't find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10
  2. Wine by SanLouBlues · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The obvious answer . . . .

  3. Err, Yes and No by Toodles · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you're expecting to run the actual binaries, your outta luck. What you CAN do though is 'back display' it if you have solaris running on another box on your network, or even under VMWare (notice, I havent tried Solaris under VMWare, don't even know if its possible).

    On your box with the XServer (FreeBSD in this case):

    $xhost +solaris.box.ip.here

    On the Solaris box:

    $DISPLAY=insert.your.ip.here:0
    $export DISPLAY
    $./ie &

    It should display on your FreeBSD Xserver just like you want. I have done this for quite a while to get the HP/UX version of IE running on an Apollo 735 to display on my Linux box. A fast network is obviously preferred.

    Toodles

    --
    Toodles D. Clown