Help me to install on chromebook

Im am trying to get Zotero on my chromebook. I have followed the instructions, set up linux, opened terminal, entered the code and it returns to me everytime, saying 'no such file or directory, cannot execute binary code'
I have no idea what that means, can anyone help me? I have tried both codes from github that were recommeded, the curl and wget ones and nothing is working for me
  • Can you paste the full error?
  • -bash: //github.com/retorquere/zotero-deb/releases/download/apt-get/install.sh: No such file or directory
    /usr/bin/sudo: usr/bin/sudo: cannot execute binary file
  • That looks like you didn't copy the line correctly.
    You're following
    https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/installing_on_a_chromebook ?
    and running
    curl -sL https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-deb/releases/download/apt-get/install.sh | sudo bash
    ?
    Could you take a screenshot of the terminal, post it somewhere (google drive, imgur.com) and link to it from here?
  • You still need to share that with "everyone"
  • Sorry, I didnt know that. It should be good to go now
  • https;/ => https:/
  • Tried that. i updated the docs page with the new message

  • edited September 27, 2021
    You're just not copying the full line.

    To be clear, you shouldn't be retyping anything. (I'm not sure how else you would have ended up with a semicolon.) You should be copying the full line and pasting it into the terminal.
  • edited September 27, 2021
  • You're missing the second part of the command, ie | sudo bash
    How are you doing this? You should be using copy & paste which would help minimize such errors
  • Hi Adam,

    When I copy and paste the full command, I get the first error message. When that command is posted to terminal it enters with ; instead of : which means I have to retype. That also returns the first error message.
    If I split up the command, ie enter the first part, I get the longer message as shown in google docs.
  • Not sure I understand why it would change : to ; but could you not just fix that after pasting?
    Splitting the command is not an option. The output you're seeing there is exactly as expected, but doesn't actually do anything
  • edited September 29, 2021
    If you're new to the command line, don't experiment without getting directed advice, certainly if sudo is involved.

    If you pasted (not typed)

    curl -sL https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-deb/releases/download/apt-get/install.sh | sudo bash

    into the command line, and you're getting

    no such file or directory, cannot execute binary code

    that means that one of the commands inside the script do not exist on your system. Unfortunately, it's not telling us which.

    Copy/paste the following:

    curl -sL https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-deb/releases/download/apt-get/install.sh | sudo bash -e -x

    and tell us what response you get.
  • Also, what does

    which bash

    return?
  • @emilianoeheyns, i've updated the google docs with the results of the last 2 commands. To be honest, I'm about ready to give up on this and get a different referencing tool
  • edited September 29, 2021
    If you want to give up, I can't stop you, but you've hardly given us opportunity to help you. It's not like I'm getting paid for this, many of us just volunteer help.
  • edited September 28, 2021
    Edit: I actually now see this correctly on the last page of the google doc. So you should be set to run
    sudo apt update
    and then
    sudo apt install zotero

    you had previously pasted these both in one line, so instead I'd just copy and paste them one after the other -- paste the update line, press return, wait for the process to finish, then paste the install line.



    you have "sudo basg" instead of "sudo bash" at the end of the command, which is why it fails. Everything else looks right.

    Like Emiliano, I'm a bit confused why you're not copy&pasting, but if for some reason you find you have to do part of this manually, you have to quadruple check that what you type matches the instructions exactly, letter-by-letter. I get computer code can be intimidating if you're not used to it, but we're not asking you to code, we're asking you to make sure that a string of letters your pasting matches the string of letters in the instructions.

    In all the screenshots in the google doc, there's not a single screenshot that includes running
    curl -sL https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-deb/releases/download/apt-get/install.sh | sudo bash


  • Guys, I am aware you are trying to help, I'm not in any way saying it is your fault that this isn't working for me. Surely, I'm allowed to express my frustration?
    Screenshot on google docs for running Adams last command
  • See above -- that looks exactly right, now try the next two lines, separately as I suggest.
  • Thats done adam, screenshots in google docs again. I presume I type Y to the ' do you want to continue?' question?
  • Yes, exactly. All looking good
  • OK, all good! I am up and running. Thank you very much for your help, I do appreciate it
  • Surely, I'm allowed to express my frustration?
    Allowed, yes, in the sense that you don't need permission from any one of us.

    But turnabout is fair play, so at the very least you will have to allow me to express my frustration about trying to guide people through solutions while they're imperfectly following instructions (which is fine) and complaining about the process (which I don't think is fine). It looks to me like at least some of your frustration stems from your experiments not working out, but those were experiments that we quite explicitly recommended you stop doing. As far as I could tell from the GDoc you posted, if you had just copy-pasted the installation commands, it would have worked. We were trying to get you there without stressing you out, as it is simply harder to help a distressed user. But that does make the work more stressful for us.

    And it doesn't really matter who you're complaining about. From my perspective, I'm trying to help you; saying that you are about to give up gives me no relevant information that I can help you with, and it makes the work less pleasant, because you are signalling distress which I cannot address, which encourages me to give up in turn. Nobody benefits from that.

    Most of us are volunteers here (and it's not just what you see here -- the deb packages for example are a volunteer effort by me), I don't expect explicit gratitude, but I do expect people to be cognizant of the fact that dealing with the frustration of others is frustrating in itself, and that they therefore try to vent this elsewhere, if only for pragmatic reasons. For me, a punching bag does wonders.
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