How do I run a compiled binary in Android?

Question

I've been trying to run a compiled binary in my android phone, but it just keeps telling me "No such file or directory".

To be specific, I compiled wificurse, and as the description has mention to an arm command it's obvious that the source code can be compiled for an arm architecture without making any change to the makefile. And so I did the following:

export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi-

make CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabi-

And then with the resulting binary (wificurse) I did the following:

adb push wificurse /data

In a root adb shell I did:

        root@android:/data # chmod 0777 wificurse

Returns nothing; works.

        root@android:/data # chmod u+x wificurse

Returns "Bad Mode".

        root@android:/data # busybox chmod 077 wificurse

Returns nothing; works.

        root@android:/data # busybox chmod u+x wificurse

Returns nothing; works.

But when I try to run the binary with

    root@android:/data # ./wificurse

It returns "/system/bin/sh: ./wificurse: No such file or directory". Did a ls in the folder and the binary is indeed there.

Already tried copying the binary to the internal sdcard, then moving to /data (even tried /system/bin and /system/xbin) and it returns "Access denied", but if I chmod the binary it will return the same error (No such file or directory). Could someone help me, please? I've used the linux shell for 2+ years, though I'm completely a noob when it comes to programming stuff. I guess that I'm missing something like a toolchain, I don't know.
I'm running Ubuntu 15.10 x64.

Answer 1

Your binary apparently depends on some shared library (.so) that is not visible for dynamic linking. You can use readelf from your toolchain and you get something like this:

tom@pc:~/workspace/test/arm-v7a_android9/release$ ~/toolchains/armeabiv7a_android-9_ndk-r10e_gcc-4.9/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-readelf -d test

Dynamic section at offset 0x445a14 contains 27 entries:
  Tag        Type                         Name/Value
 0x00000003 (PLTGOT)                     0x44fc50
 0x00000002 (PLTRELSZ)                   1864 (bytes)
 0x00000017 (JMPREL)                     0x74d24
 0x00000014 (PLTREL)                     REL
 0x00000011 (REL)                        0x74cd4
 0x00000012 (RELSZ)                      80 (bytes)
 0x00000013 (RELENT)                     8 (bytes)
 0x00000015 (DEBUG)                      0x0
 0x00000006 (SYMTAB)                     0x8148
 0x0000000b (SYMENT)                     16 (bytes)
 0x00000005 (STRTAB)                     0x26718
 0x0000000a (STRSZ)                      273460 (bytes)
 0x00000004 (HASH)                       0x6934c
 0x00000001 (NEEDED)                     Shared library: [liblog.so]
 0x00000001 (NEEDED)                     Shared library: [libm.so]
 0x00000001 (NEEDED)                     Shared library: [libc.so]
 0x00000001 (NEEDED)                     Shared library: [libdl.so]
 0x0000001a (FINI_ARRAY)                 0x447cb8
 0x0000001c (FINI_ARRAYSZ)               12 (bytes)
 0x00000019 (INIT_ARRAY)                 0x447cc4
 0x0000001b (INIT_ARRAYSZ)               324 (bytes)
 0x00000020 (PREINIT_ARRAY)              0x447e08
 0x00000021 (PREINIT_ARRAYSZ)            0x8
 0x0000001e (FLAGS)                      BIND_NOW
 0x6ffffffb (FLAGS_1)                    Flags: NOW
 0x00000000 (NULL)                       0x0

Check that all libraries with type (NEEDED) are on your Android device and are visible for your binary (you should use export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<path>[:<another_path>[..]] to make .so available for dynamic linking with your binary).

If problem isn't still resolved, your application is linked with different version of some system library - try to use an older toolchain.

Answer 2

Did you try the methods in this thread? "No such file or directory" trying to execute linux binary on Android device

An alternative way to solve this problem would be installing KBOX on Android. The author has developed tools like gcc, ssh server for the Android platform. Therefore, you can start an ssh server on your phone and do all your work on your PC, which means that you can compile your code directly on the phone :)