Failed to execute /usr/sbin/xe-daemon: Exec format error

1

When I install the XenServer VM Tools, I see this as the below result for systemctl status xe-linux-distribution.service under SLES 16. No issue with SLES 15 SP7. Did I miss something, is there some breaking change introduced with SLES 16?

× xe-linux-distribution.service - Linux Guest Agent
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/xe-linux-distribution.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2026-07-25 16:32:56 CEST; 6h ago
Duration: 246ms
Invocation: 48b6c11950174ece97556e6acee69a91
Process: 1174 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/xe-linux-distribution /var/cache/xe-linux-distribution (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 1188 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/xe-daemon (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
Main PID: 1188 (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
CPU: 39ms

* systemd[1]: Starting Linux Guest Agent...
* systemd[1]: Started Linux Guest Agent.
* (e-daemon)[1188]: xe-linux-distribution.service: Failed to execute /usr/sbin/xe-daemon: Exec format error
* (e-daemon)[1188]: xe-linux-distribution.service: Failed at step EXEC spawning /usr/sbin/xe-daemon: Exec format error
* systemd[1]: xe-linux-distribution.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=203/EXEC
* systemd[1]: xe-linux-distribution.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

This is the result for file /usr/sbin/xe-daemon executed under SLES 16:

/usr/sbin/xe-daemon: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel i386, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, Go BuildID=rjnmd1Do8YIFpuehd0Cr/KIV2LHLK3LTej1D2qeYr/Saf0_ddsnZ6bwywpbIYE/36PiZCSjp8cVvrN5LDXh, stripped

SLES 15 SP7 returns:

/usr/sbin/xe-daemon: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, stripped

The only difference is that SLES 16 adds the tag ‘Go BuildID’. Any idea what I can do, how I can fix this issue?

These versions are available - I selected xe-guest-utilities-10.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm:

xe-guest-utilities-10.0.0-1.i386.rpm*
xe-guest-utilities-10.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm*
xe-guest-utilities-xenstore-10.0.0-1.i386.rpm*
xe-guest-utilities-xenstore-10.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm*
xe-guest-utilities_10.0.0-1_all.tgz*
xe-guest-utilities_10.0.0-1_amd64.deb*
xe-guest-utilities_10.0.0-1_i386.deb*

2

Well, I could fix it. I keep this question so it may help others. The problem was that the install.sh script didn’t recognise correctly the Linux distribution - SLES 16 - and the 32-bit support was not installed.

Steps how I fixed it:

  1. Enable SUSE Package Hub 16.0 x86_64 in yast.
  2. Add the 32-bit support zypper install grub2-compat-ia32.
  3. Run the script ./xe-linux-distribution which returns the output at the end of this post.
  4. According to the output I provided to the install script the parameters like this: ./install.sh -d sles -m 16.
  5. The XenServer VM Tools have been installed successfully and work properly.

Output for 1)

os_distro="sles"
os_majorver="16"
os_minorver="0"
os_uname="6.12.0-160000.35-default"
os_name="SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0"