Cannot execute binary file

[GregoryM]

Hello. I'm new to Fedora, and haven't used any flavor of Linux in years. I'm attempting to run a few benchmarks that were given to me by my instructor, but every one I try to run gives an error "Cannot execute binary file". For instance,

./Mcf inp.in

This command gives an error:
bash: ./Mcf: cannot execute binary file

It is not a permission problem, I have confirmed the file has execute permissions (one of the things I still remembered after all these years). I suspect all the benchmarks I have been given were compiled on Ubuntu. Would this be causing the problem? I do not have access to the source code, so I cannot recompile. If that is the problem, is there a way around it that doesn't involve throwing away a weekend and starting fresh on Ubuntu?

Thanks,
Greg

[hmmsjan]

Dear GregoryM,

This message appears if you e.g. try to execute a 64 bit program on a 32 bit system.
Please check with the "file" command whether the program fits your architecture.

Example: copied "ls" from CentOS-5/64 to 32 bit F13

file ./ls
./ls: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, stripped

./ls
bash: ./ls: cannot execute binary file



Good luck