How to run a MIPS binary on x86 platform?

Question

Is there any way to run a MIPS binary on a Linux x86/x86-x64 machine? I got some applications for Enigma2 set-top-boxes (which is also based on Linux) that I want to run on a x8

Answer 1

Qemu could be your Messiah this time. I use it personally and it really saves a lot of pain using an FPGA. https://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/QEMU

Of course, this isn't natively executing the MIPS binary on your computer. But I suppose that if you can find plugin of your app coded for MIPS processors, the app itself can be found for MIPS.

Answer 2

The keyword is "emulator". The most famous emulator is qemu which can pretty much emulate any architectures out there, but there are also lots of MIPS emulators on Linux that you can find in the Linux-MIPS wiki:

1. Open Virtual Platforms (OVP) OVPsim
2. GXemul
3. SimOS
4. Sulima
5. MIPSsim
6. MipsSim
7. SPIM
8. VMIPS
9. Virtutech Simics
10. SandUPSim
11. MPS
12. YAMS
13. MAME/MESS
14. MISSE
15. Cisco 7200 Simulator
16. QEMU
17. VirtualMIPS
18. Miep
19. MARS
20. QtMips

Note that there are full-system emulation (which is heavier) and user-mode emulation which emulates a single process. Depending on which type you need you must choose one, but qemu supports both

• Full-system emulation: Run operating systems for any machine, on any supported architecture
• User-mode emulation: Run programs for another Linux/BSD target, on any supported architecture

However performance will be terrible so you'll never want to run an app that need to be fast like a video decoder in a set-top-box. If the source is available then just recompile it

See Decompile / Run MIPS executable under x86_64 Ubuntu