Various dialog help messages
Packed Files
Sometimes, executable files are shipped in a packed form. It means that to disassemble these files you need to unpack them.
IDA displays this message if the relocation table of the input MZ executable file is empty.
Bad Relocation Table
Relocation table has references beyond program limits.
Additional information at the end of file
The file being loaded is not completely loaded to memory by the operating system. This may be because:
the file is overlayed; IDA does not know this type of overlays
the file has debugging information attached to its end
the file has other type of information at the end
Anyway, IDA will not load the additional information.
Overlayed files
Some EXE files are built with overlays. This means that the whole file is not loaded into the memory at the start of the program, but only a part of it. Other parts are loaded by the program itself into the dynamic memory or over some subroutines of the program. This fact leads to many difficulties when you disassemble such a program.
Currently, IDA knows about overlays created by Borland and Microsoft C and Pascal compilers.
Error loading overlays
One of the following occurred:
i.e. the input file structure is bad.
Maximal number of segments is reached
When IDA tried to delete bytes outside of any segment, the maximal number of contiguous chunks is reached. This is NOT a fatal error.
Some bytes outside of any segment will be present => the output text will be incorrect because of these bytes. However, you can delete them in the output text using a text editor.
Cannot generate executable file
IDA produces executable files only for:
MS DOS .exe
MS DOS .com
MS DOS .drv
MS DOS .sys
general binary
Intel Hex Object Format
MOS Technology Hex Object Format
Furthermore, external loaders may or may not support the creation of user-defined input file formats.
Bad input file format
Intel Hex Object Format ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ This is the default format. This format is line oriented and uses only printable ASCII characters except for the carriage return/line feed at the end of each line. Each line in the file assumes the following format:
Where:
All fields marked 'hex' consist of two or four ASCII hexadecimal digits (0-9, A-F). A maximum of 24 data bytes will be represented on each line.
The last line of the file will be a record conforming to the above format with a byte count of zero (':00000001FF').
The checksum is defined as:
MOS Technology Hex Object Format ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ This format is line oriented and uses only printable ASCII characters except for the carriage return/line feed at the end of each line. Each line in the file assumes the following format:
Where:
All fields marked 'hex' consist of two or four ASCII hexadecimal digits (0-9, A-F). A maximum of 24 data bytes will be represented on each line.
The last line of the file will be a record with a byte count of zero (';00').
The checksum is defined as:
Choose mark number
This command allows you to mark a location so that afterwards you can jump to the marked location immediately. Select any line from the list. The selected line will be used for mark description. Afterwards, you will be able to jump to the marked location using <Alt-J> key.
You can use <Up>, <Down>, <PgUp>, <PgDn>, <Home>, <End> keys. If you select the first line of the list, nothing will be selected.
Press <Enter> to select line, <Esc> to cancel.
See also: How to jump to the marked location
Enter mark description
Mark description is any text line. The description is for your information only.
Choose marked location
This command allows you to jump to the previously marked location. Select any line. You will jump to the selected location.
You can use <Up>, <Down>, <PgUp>, <PgDn>, <Home>, <End> keys. If you select the first line of the list, nothing will be selected.
Press <Enter> to select line, <Esc> to cancel.
See also: How to mark a location
IDA View bookmarks
Structs bookmarks
Enums bookmarks
Cannot rename a location
It might be because of one of the following reasons:
1. The name is ill-formed:
it is a reserved word
IDA does not allow the use of register names as byte names.
it contains bad characters. The list of allowed characters is specified in IDA.CFG
it starts with a reserved prefix. Some prefixes are used by IDA to generate names. See Names Representation dialog for the list of prefixes.
The name is already used in the program. Try to use another name. In order to know where the name is used, you can try to jump to it using Jump to the Named Location
3. The address cannot have a name: