I was going to install EQDKP for a World of Warcraft guild site I was going to host on my server. However it told me that I needed to update my MySQL server version. So I tried apt-get install MySQL-server hoping it would find whatever was the latest version and get any packes it needs besides what I told it to get if they are required fro teh new version of the MySQL server. It asked me something about this many upgraded this many new isntalled would you like to procede. I told it yes. and I got this error below.

Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 93866 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libc6 2.3.6-3 (using .../libc6_2.3.6.ds1-8_i386.deb) ...
WARNING: This version of glibc requires that you be running
kernel version 2.4.1 or later. Earlier kernels contained
bugs that may render the system unusable if a modern version
of glibc is installed.
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.3.6.ds1-8_i386.deb (--unpack):
subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/libc6_2.3.6.ds1-8_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

After that I tried apt-get -f install but that doesnt seem to do anything either I get the same error. and I cant install or uninstall anything because this stuff is already in the middle of trying to install, even after I reboot it remembers that this stuff was being installed and didnt finish and wants to finish them first. My Question is pretty much how can I either cancel any of these from wanting to install anymore, or how can I update my kernel to version 2.4.1 or later like glibc says that it requires? Thanks in advance if you can help me with this because I would rather not have to reinstall Debian and get my server all configured again.

If I were you I'd reinstall the system.

This is the numero uno reason why I try to use package managers like apt and yum and RPM as little as possible. I prefer to always get a source package and compile the program myself. This way I can more or less precisely control what goes where, and how stuff is setup and configured.

What kernel version are you running? It seems to be a very old version?

Anyway, the need that apt feels to update your libc seems anomalous... as far as I know there is absolutely zero need to update libc to get a MySQL instance working. Are you sure the apt command you typed is not just trying to upgrade your MySQL, but maybe your ENTIRE system...?!

My kernel version is 2.0. something So yes, it is very old. All I tried to do to begin with was apt-get install mysql-server and then it wanted to update libc6 and some other things and I just told it yes. I've never had problems before with apt messing anything up I figured it knew what it was doing. I do have another server I am workign on installing the latest version of Debian on, but I'm having some problems with it right now.

You made a mess
Probably you updated from libc5 to libc6.

So now, the only thing that could be working on your debian is mysql-server.
NEVER upgrade the libc without taking care.

What you should have done is to build the package yourself because probably the source package doesn't have the dependency on the libc and it would have adapted to your libc5 (or old libc6)
something like
apt-get build-dep mysql-server <-- gets the dependencies for compiling
apt-get source mysql-server <-- gets the source
fakeroot dpkg-buildpackage binary <-- build a package from source


There is no need to get the tar.gz source.
Otherwise your system (a real system, not with 3 or 4 programs installed) is a mess: which library is still needed, whats this file doing here, all these questions that you don't ask yourself with apt.


You can always revert your mess by downloading the old libc<xxx>.deb package that you had. Then you have to boot by any means (livecd for example), and install the .deb with dpkg with the option to tell it to install to your debian, not to the / of the livecd. Happened to me once and everything was in order after a few minutes, no need to reinstall.

Arrg
ignore this double post