Re: tlug: PJE

[Scott Stone <sstone@example.com>]

On Fri, 21 Aug 1998, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> >>>>> "Eric" == Eric S Standlee <fwiw3980@example.com> writes:
> 
>     Eric> I cannot install canna because rpm says:
> 
>     Eric> 	libncurses.so.3.0 is needed by canna-3.5....rpm
> 
>     Eric> I installed ncurses-4.2-8.i386.rpm and it still says that.
>     Eric> I got this off the PJE ftp server, should I try the ncurses
>     Eric> and canna off of the pht server?
> 
> Yes.  They were linked against libc6 so you should be OK.

Redhat also ships an 'ncurses3' package which provides compatibility
libraries for programs linked against ncurses v3.x.

> 
> Use PJE as guide to what's available.  If possible use a commercial
> distribution's versions.
> 
> In general, since the tools are compatible, you can probably migrate
> to TurboLinux piece by piece.  I'd say this is your best bet.  In
> fact, you might even want to apply to PHT to be a beta tester, you
> could stop apologizing for asking questions ;-) Seriously, questions
> are exactly what they want in a beta tester.  But it does involve more
> time on your part, and some risk of downtime.  (Risk of data loss
> shouldn't be any greater than with a release, unless you change
> subsystems, eg sendmail -> qmail, which is always dangerous.  but they
> won't do that without warning you.)
> 
>     Eric> See if I have this right, to run kinput Ihave to have canna,
>     Eric> but to have canna, I need ncurses...  Is there something
>     Eric> else that I will need...
> 
> Oh brother, what you don't know can hurt you.  You got the analysis
> right but you need a little background.
> 
> You've been hosed by RedHat hype.  Both Debian and TurboLinux have
> worked hard to do the transition from libc5 to libc6 (aka glibc)
> transparently.  RedHat chose to be first, some how, some way, and
> devil take the unsupported software.
> 
> The problem is that libc5 and libc6 are not link-compatible.  (The
> reasons for this are manifold; suffice it to say that the libc5
> maintainer's name is used as a curse in some quarters.)  Thus it is
> not possible for _any_ software (ie, Canna and ncurses) linked with
> libc5 to use the libc6 libraries on your RH 5.x system.
> 
> After the PHT RPMs, the first thing to try is to look for
> "libc5-compat" software on RedHat.  (That's the Debian name for it,
> RHL's may be different.)  These are packages linked to libc5
> specifically intended to be installed alongside libc6.  With any luck,
> you should be able to find a recent libc5 (not that recent RedHat
> libc5s are 100% trustworthy, YMMV but you should be OK) and libncurses
> and anything else Canna or its dependent libraries want.
> 
> Next best is to compile Canna yourself under libc6.  The fact that RH
> 5.1 isn't supported yet suggests that just getting the source RPM and
> doing `rpm --build' won't work :-(.
> 
> If that don't work, try alien and the Debian versions of
> libc5-compat.  (Moderately dangerous to the health of your system.)
> 
> The last thing you can try to do is try to find a libncurses.so.3.x
> somewhere, maybe in the old RedHat distributions (4.2 is most recent
> libc5, I think).  Trying to install this will probably complain about
> more recent versions, and you can --force-install (whatever the
> correct RedHat option is).  Very dangerous, all your curses apps may
> stop working.  Make sure you have a few free terminal windows open, I
> think bash links to curses so you'd lose the ability to start new
> shells.
> 
> You could switch to Debian or TurboLinux.  Both of those would involve
> wiping your /, /usr, and /var partitions first for safety; you can
> probably save most of your work by (su; tar cvzf homes.tar.gz /root
> /home /var/spool) but you might very well lose something, check that
> carefully.
> 
> Or you can tell your Canna-using apps that cannaserver is
> tanko.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (that's me), port 5680, send me email (I
> currently block pretty much everything outside of Tsukuba-dai) and you
> can use mine.  Probably very slow....
> 
> -- 
> University of Tsukuba                Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
> Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences        Tel/fax: +1 (298) 53-5091
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Next Nomikai: 18 September, 19:30 Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
> Next Meeting: 10 October, Tokyo Station Yaesu central gate 12:30
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Sponsor: PHT, makers of TurboLinux http://www.pht.co.jp
> 

--------------------------------------------------
Scott M. Stone <sstone@example.com, sstone@example.com>
               <sstone@example.com>
Head of TurboLinux Development/Systems Administrator
Pacific HiTech, Inc (USA) / Pacific HiTech, KK (Japan)
http://www.pht.com		http://armadillo.pht.co.jp
http://www.pht.co.jp	        http://www.turbolinux.com


--------------------------------------------------------------
Next Nomikai: 18 September, 19:30 Tengu TokyoEkiMae 03-3275-3691
Next Meeting: 10 October, Tokyo Station Yaesu central gate 12:30
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsor: PHT, makers of TurboLinux http://www.pht.co.jp