fighting red hat package dependencies/libc.so.6
 

I'm using red hat 7.3. I wanted to upgrade to real player 10. Upon trying to install it wanted
libstdc++.so.5, well I dug up one on the net, libstdc++.so.5.0.3, installed it in /usr/lib and
make a link. So I passed that problem. Then the installation wanted libgcc_s.so.1. I
believe I found that in a red hat package (it all blurs when you start going in circles).
Then it wanted /lib/i686/libc.so.6. I dug up a red hat package with that but it required
something else and would not install so after I while I tried to force it, (-i --force) to no
avail. Then I decided to search for the file and found I have one, there is a /lib/i686/libc.so.6
but it is a link to libc-2.2.5.so.

OK, so whats happening? Does it want a real, new libc.so.6? These red hat package
dependencies are extremely frustrating. There must be a better solution. At any rate,
any help will be appreciated. I was thinking in particular that maybe I could grab just
the libc.so.6 file off of some site or rip open a red hat package and grab that one file
and stick it in place. But I don't know how to rip open a red hat package and just get
that one file.

I hope not to hear that I should just start upgrading because this always seems to require
an endless series of new packages that create conflicts with old packages.

Thanks,

Don Tveter, don@dontveter.com

The problem you are encountering is because RH 7.3 is a little old. The *right* way to get libc.so.6 is to compile a new version of glibc - glibc-2.3.2 or 2.3.3. You will have to check a few things on your system - mainly what version of gcc you have. RH 7.3 shipped with gcc-2.96 which you will have to upgrade to compile glibc-2.3.x. Also do not remove the old glibc package just overwrite it with 'make install'. In the end though, depending on what you want to use the machine for, it would be better to upgrade to a newer distro such as RH 9.0 or Fedora Core as you will have problems using anything precompiled on newer distros or compiling problems due to older libraries and will be fighting dependencies with all newer packages.

Hope that helps.