glibc woes

zynaps

I downloaded some stuff that claimed to need glibc 2.3 to run (a release of X), and I had 2.1 or something... so, I downloaded glibc 2.3.2 (the latest version I could find on the gnu site, then gcc 3.2.2, which glibc needed to compile...).

After some messing around and building and installing gcc, then glibc, then X, I was welcomed with a screen full of "/lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.3' not found (required by ...etc)" messages, which is confusing since you'd think glibc 2.3.2 would do what 2.3 did and better.

Why is my system broken because I installed a minor revision newer than what X wanted?

Any ideas on how to fix it? Is there a quick fix? Is there any fix?
I can't even recompile the kernel, make makes a bollox of it during "make dep". Maybe there's some environment variable or configuration file I have no clue about that I need to update?

I mean, if the way around is to recompile every binary package from sources, that's a bit crap isn't it? Since I don't have the sources for every application on the system... argh
Running (in a manner of speaking) kernel 2.4.18 on slackware 8.1.

zynaps

Something

download the xfreesources.. and err.. compile Its preatty easy, like make World; make install or something, cant remmeber, read the readme.

If thid doesn't work http://fdisk.it/

zynaps

That's what caused it to break.

I downloaded the newest release of X for glibc 2.3, was told I didn't have a new enough version of glibc, downloaded and installed glibc 2.3.2, and received even more errors, breaking things other than XFree as well - something that is called in make dep goes wrong as well....
Maybe glibc 2.3.2 is just buggy? Maybe it doesn't contain a reference to 2.3, I found some mentions of similar problems to mine on the net, but no applicable solutions that I can see...

zynaps

longword

The moral of the story is: Don't mess with your libc. It's far more effort than it's worth. If you want a later glibc, go for a distribution that ships with it. Slackware 9.0, RedHat 8.0 (with a vendor update), and Mandrake 9.1 all ship with glibc 2.3.x.

zynaps

Doesn't make a lot of sense though, does it...
Upgrading a library to support newer versions of software shouldn't break your whole system

zynaps

longword

Originally posted by zynaps
Doesn't make a lot of sense though, does it...
Upgrading a library to support newer versions of software shouldn't break your whole system

glibc is a different story. It's a huge library that's critical to every single binary in your system up to and including /sbin/init. It's difficult to build correctly if you don't know exactly what you're doing, and add to that you don't know what patches your vendor might have applied to the glibc they shipped with your distribution, just like they may have patched your kernel. IME life's too short to mess with glibc.

Stark

upgrading glibc can mean every app on your system needs to be re-compiled. like the previous posters said, don't. Upgrade your whole distro instead.