Windows 10, MobaXterm, "bash: /bin/chmod: cannot execute binary file"

Question

bash: /bin/chmod: cannot execute binary file.

Similar to another question here on the boards.

I tried answer suggestion, but to no avail:

uninstalled MobaXterm
re-installed MobaXterm

Still get:

bash: /bin/chmod: cannot execute binary file

The same response when I try other commands, like ls, mv, etc.

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 11 '19 at 18:31

7

In order to restart from a clean install please try this procedure:

Open MobaXterm.
Run open / command from a local terminal => the Windows Explorer should open in your slash folder.
Close MobaXterm.
Rename your slash folder at Windows Explorer from slash to slash-old
Open MobaXterm
Verify if it now works as expected.

edited Sep 11 '19 at 18:31

MarianD

2,716

answered Sep 11 '19 at 09:10

chandrasekhar

86

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 25 '20 at 13:52

1

I just had the same issue, and spent good couple hours trying to solve this.

The solution was to delete the profile, and then Run as Administrator - apparently when you don't, Cygwin is unable to create proper symlinks to its utilities.

answered Feb 25 '20 at 13:52

StanTastic

202

I want to second this. Deleting the profile and not running Moba as admin the next time resulted in the same non-working situation for me. – Christopher Feb 08 '21 at 15:31

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 05 '20 at 15:08

I found an easy, quick solution is to either delete, or rename, the MobaXterm/slash folder. Then restart MobaXterm. Upon restart, MobaXterm will rebuild the slash folder, and all is well. I am guessing that a contributing cause, at least in my case, is that I have set NotePad++ as the "favorite" editor, and tend I toggle back and forth between opening the files from MobaXterm and opening them directly from the MS Windoze context. This is probably confusing MobaXterm.

Windows 10, MobaXterm, "bash: /bin/chmod: cannot execute binary file"

3 Answers3