# Julia does not start on ARM64v8 | exec /usr/local/julia/bin/julia: exec format error

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-does-not-start-on-arm64v8-exec-usr-local-julia-bin-julia-exec-format-error/97793>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** docker, arm\
**Created:** [April 22, 2023, 4:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-does-not-start-on-arm64v8-exec-usr-local-julia-bin-julia-exec-format-error/97793 "2023-04-22T16:44:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![schlichtanders](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/schlichtanders/32/32145_2.png) [@schlichtanders](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/schlichtanders)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 4:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-does-not-start-on-arm64v8-exec-usr-local-julia-bin-julia-exec-format-error/97793/1 "2023-04-22T16:44:37Z")

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Hi there, I am using julia\_pod to run Julia on kubernetes. Everything works on local minikube, but when switching to my freshly created kubernetes on ARM, I get the following error log:

```julia
exec /usr/local/julia/bin/julia: exec format error

```

From my best guess this is related to running on ARM. Does someone has an idea what is going on?  
I adapted the julia\_pod to use the official julia docker `julia:v1.8-buster` as its base.

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**Author:** ![Oscar\_Smith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oscar_smith/32/25343_2.png) [@Oscar\_Smith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Oscar_Smith)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 5:10pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-does-not-start-on-arm64v8-exec-usr-local-julia-bin-julia-exec-format-error/97793/2 "2023-04-22T17:10:56Z")

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don’t install Julia from your package manager. they ship broken versions of Julia.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![schlichtanders](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/schlichtanders/32/32145_2.png) [@schlichtanders](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/schlichtanders)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-does-not-start-on-arm64v8-exec-usr-local-julia-bin-julia-exec-format-error/97793/3 "2023-04-22T17:42:25Z")

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as said, this is the official julia docker which is used.

no package manager involved

* * *

EDIT: Another thought: the package is compiled with PackageCompiler to custom sysimage. Maybe this is can cause the problem

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**Author:** ![mkitti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkitti/32/12459_2.png) [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 6:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-does-not-start-on-arm64v8-exec-usr-local-julia-bin-julia-exec-format-error/97793/4 "2023-04-22T18:15:55Z")

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The system image is not meant to be portable. I recommend compiling it on the target environment.

Look into the environment variable JULIA\_CPU\_TARGET if you want to generalize the system image between ARM microarchitectures.

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**Author:** ![giordano](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/giordano/32/2166_2.png) [@giordano](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/giordano)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2023, 6:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-does-not-start-on-arm64v8-exec-usr-local-julia-bin-julia-exec-format-error/97793/5 "2023-04-22T18:36:24Z")

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The error message means that you’re attempting to run an executable for a wrong architecture. If the problem was a different microarchitecture within the same architecture you’d get an SIGILL (signal for an illegal instruction).

```julia
file /usr/local/julia/bin/julia

```

should tell you what the executable is.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ImreSamu](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/imresamu/32/20677_2.png) [@ImreSamu](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ImreSamu)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 3:23am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-does-not-start-on-arm64v8-exec-usr-local-julia-bin-julia-exec-format-error/97793/6 "2023-08-30T03:23:32Z")

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linking the issue and the “answer”

> <https://github.com/beacon-biosignals/julia_pod/issues/66#issuecomment-1522001694>
>
> when trying to run julia\_pod on a kubernetes which runs on ARMv8 64bit, I get th…e following error (seen in the kubernetes dashboard logs)
> \`\`\`bash
> exec /usr/local/julia/bin/julia: exec format error
> \`\`\`
> any idea what could be going wrong?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![schlichtanders](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/schlichtanders/32/32145_2.png) [@schlichtanders](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/schlichtanders)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2023, 10:17am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-does-not-start-on-arm64v8-exec-usr-local-julia-bin-julia-exec-format-error/97793/7 "2023-09-02T10:17:58Z")

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I think progress was made - I myself am no longer running into this, I am compiling on the target node instead.

But I somewhere have seen an update on an issue that this could actually work by now.