Debian libc5 to libc6 Mini-HOWTO (regular posting, updated)
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Debian libc5 to libc6 Mini-HOWTO
Scott K. Ellis, storm@gate.net
v2.0, August 19, 1997
1. Introduction
The Debian project is currently in the process of putting together the
next release of the Debian system. This version will utilize the new
libc6, a replacement for the prior libc5 which includes many
enhancements and brings the Linux C library back into sync with the
GNU project. We are doing this in a way to allow you to continue to
utilize your older software by providing development and operating
environments for both C libraries. However, all packages in the new
release will be linked with the new C library. This has made it
slightly more difficult to install packages from the unstable branch
of our development tree into a working system. There is a slight
possibility of making your system unbootable in the process, this
guide is intended to help you avoid such problems.
1.1. Recent Changes:
o Reorganized slightly and added more information about possible
problems.
o Moved ldso above libc6, incase they have an ancient ldso.
o Raised versions required for bash and libreadline(g)2 to the
official maintainer versions to avoid possible version mismatch
breakage.
o Added a note saying that allowing dselect to upgrade the listed
packages might result in an unbootable system.
o Added ncurses3.0 to list of packages after realizing that
libreadline2 depended on it. This may not be necessary, as
everyone should already have ncurses3.0 installed.
1.2. Disclaimer
As always, this document comes with NO WARRANTY. These comments are
based on my personal experience and experimentation. While this
worked for me off a freshly installed v1.3.1 system, you mileage may
vary. Please send any comments or corrections to storm@gate.net.
2. Requirements
2.1. Minimum Requirements
The minimum list of packages to install to be able to run unstable-
branch packages is below. Install these packages one at a time in
exactly the order listed. When versions are mentioned, that is a
minimum suggested version, any later version should also be
acceptable.
IMPORTANT: If you use dselect to do the initial upgrade to these
packages, there is a very good possibility of breaking bash and
therefore making your system unusable.
o ldso_1.9.5-1
o libc6_2.0.4-1
o ncurses3.0_1.9.9e-2
o ncurses3.4_1.9.9g-3
o libreadline2_2.1-3
o libreadlineg2_2.1-3
o bash_2.01-1
2.2. Other Suggested Packages
These packages are not absolutely essential for the functioning of the
packages in unstable, but are still very useful. The new dpkg-dev may
be necessary for unpacking source archives from unstable, and the new
dpkg-ftp is needed if you wish to use the ftp method of dselect to
upgrade your system to the unstable distribution.
o libg++272_2.7.2.5-2
o dpkg_1.4.0.19
o dpkg-dev_1.4.0.19
o dpkg-ftp_1.4.9
3. Development
If you wish to do libc6 development, you should first purge all the
'-dev' packages on your system, the new development system will use
packages with the suffix '-dev' for libc6 development and '-altdev'
for libc5 development. You will wish to install the latest libc5
package, and altgcc if you wish continue to do libc5 development as
well. Some libraries haven't been recompiled for the new libc6 yet,
check that all your vital libraries are available before upgrading.
Linking libc5-based libraries with libc6-based programs will have
unpredictable results.
4. Concerns
4.1. Upgrading bash
The package bash_2.01-1 requires that you have libreadlineg2_2.1-3 or
greater installed. If you install the new bash package before
installing the new libreadlineg2, you will break your system.
bash_2.01-2 has the appropriate predepends lines, but may not yet be
to your mirror.
4.2. /usr/bin/gencat
Note also that both the man-db and the libc6-dev packages currently
include /usr/bin/gencat. The version of gencat in libc6-dev has been
reported to cause segfault problems with man-db, you may wish to
reinstall man-db after libc6-dev if you experience these problems.
- --
| In order to live freely and happily,
Scott K. Ellis | you must sacrifice boredom.
storm@gate.net | It is not always an easy sacrifice.
| -- Illusions
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