Generating ethereum address from private key on Ubuntu 32 bit

Question

I have a securely generated private key that I want to use to generate an ethereum address on an offline PC (Ubuntu 32 bit). My preferred way would be to use geth, but there's no geth binary for linux 32 bit. My questions are:

Why there are no 32-bit binaries available? What are the alternative ways to generate an ethereum address (binaries preferred) except MyEtherWallet? What happens if I try to run 64-bit geth on 32-bit Linux?

Answer 1

Alternatively if you are happy installing node.js and npm, you can choose from multiple Javascript projects handling keys:

• ethereumjs-wallet or keythereum if you want to code a bit or
• helpeth if you need a simple commandline tool.

This command should give you the details needed:

$ helpeth -p <your private key as a hex string> keyDetails

Make sure to double check the output, that it matches your input private key!

$ ./helpeth -p 0x71a7f0e2ef1b7ff501b65a1650d48b8d5521fadc9539eec146d4faa6f5ca9aca --show-private keyDetails
Address: 0x15f2f3e0f2d74ea7b185fc12f24cb4f402cc96d0
Address (checksum): 0x15F2f3e0F2D74eA7B185fC12F24cB4F402cC96D0
ICAP: XE53 2KAS Y050 UIFI VB1J 2636 IKXC 4QIP SK0
Public key: 0xf2a3a694026ed4abb16e18f0421a6e667803399dad2eae2ca8c3f95934fcb46e9440183fd278181deb501d2f0766d0f676d0cac84da3632590e2978cb6883bc4
Private key: 0x71a7f0e2ef1b7ff501b65a1650d48b8d5521fadc9539eec146d4faa6f5ca9aca

Note, if you are happy installing a browser you can use a local copy of EtherAddress (https://ryepdx.github.io/ethaddress.org/) or EtherWallet - both run in-browser, you don't need Internet connection for them.

Answer 2

Since geth is not available, use eth as client. You can build it from source, following these instructions:

git clone https://github.com/ethereum/webthree-umbrella
cd webthree-umbrella
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j $(nproc)

Or simply install it from the repositories:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ethereum/ethereum-qt
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ethereum/ethereum
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cpp-ethereum eth ethkey

Import your plain private key with ethkey:

ethkey importbare 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

This account will be available in your eth client.