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: 1) 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: http://go-mono.com/download.html Instructions for compiling Mono can be found at: http://www.go-mono.com/compiling.html 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. 2) 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 file 'binfmt_misc.txt' in this directory to know more about the configuration process. 3) 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. # Thus, it is possible that the following line # is not needed at all. Look at /etc/modprobe.conf # to check whether this is applicable or not. 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 4) 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.