major issues with glibc
 

Hi all,

Due to issues with amarok I removed glibc to install an older version. Half-way through, the removal failed, and subsequently any attempts to launch new processes failed too.

Thus booting is impossible (it hangs halfway), and the system is simply unable to launch anything (ls doesn't work, /bin/bash doesn't work etc...). I am posting this from Slax (thank god for that), and I ran e2fsck, didn't change anything.

How can I rectify the glibc problems? Is there a way to install the slackware packages under slax using pkgtool? For future reference, is updating/reverting versions of glibc a very tricky process?

YOU NEVER REMOVE glibc.

You upgrade or downgrade it but never remove it.

Glibc is the most important library in you system.
Everything besides the kernel uses it. Bash too
You may fix this by booting from the CD and then mounting your root filesystem and installing it.

Downgrading is also not recommended. If you have packages compiled against the newer version of glibc they might not work with the older one.

I found a really old thread with the same problem with yours:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ighlight=glibc

I wasn't even using slackware when the thread was written

So maybe if you could guide me through this a little -
boot up in slax
mount hda2 (root)
then: I assume pkgtool will, by default, want to install things on the slax root drive, so do I do a chroot?
how does that work?

Many thanks!

i had a problem with Amarok also, but i don't think it was caused by glibc. I'd rather wait for the next Amarok version (1.4 i believe, which is now on Beta 2 status)

What are your problems with amaroK? For me, after I updated something (it was part of an update for lots of packages), amaroK started crashing sporadically after about every 1 or 2 songs.

boot from the first slackware cd (you don't need slax)
then mount the root filesystem somewhere:
do a chroot:
and find the package with the latest glibc
and do

From the man pages:

First you might want to run

to make sure it installs clean.

Thanks guys, your tips did the trick. I wish that it was made more clear that removing these packages is a bad idea - like at least give a little warning.

I also learned that slackware's packaging system is indeed quite versatile, as are its install cds. I am impressed, and evermore glad that I'm running Slackware :)

Thanks again! And yeah, I guess I'll just wait out on Amarok.

This is the price you have to pay for simplicity

I did the same thing (removed glibc) 3 years ago in RH 8.
When I tried to remove glibc I was warned that it was needed by many packages but I forced the removal.

The problems I had were a lot bigger than yours because it also corrupted the rpm database and I had to rebuild it.

Anyway I prefer the fact that the slackware package management system does not check for dependencies. RPM dependencies is hell.

yup, same problem as i had in my Slackware. Mine is worse. It always crash everytime it changes to next song or when i tried to skip to next song.