ldconfig and hosing my system

[Bill Benedetto <bbenedetto@goodyear.com>]

Ok.  Let me preface this by saying I'm not normally mentally
challenged.  People often bring me computer problems and they
leave with their problem solved and their computer still running.

System:
  New Dell Poweredge running Woody.
  Installed with bf24 and using ext3 for /.
  Installed and running for about 4-6 weeks.

Problem:
 I ran "ldconfig" when I had an LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable set to
 point to old old libraries.  Once "ldconfig" finished, then no
 commands would work.  Nothing.  No, I didn't write down the
 messages that occurred when I tried any commands.  I believed
 that I had inadvertently overwrote some key library.  After I
 looked on another system and saw what ldconfig did, I was pretty
 sure that I overwrote something.

 Technically I couldn't "reboot" because no commands were
 working!  A power-cycle worked up until the kernel started and
 the kernel paniced.  No, I didn't write down the specific
 message that was spat out.  If it is pertinent, I could get it.
 So I couldn't just reboot and hope for the best.

 At this point I *BELIEVE* that I hosed /etc/ld.so.cache .  (I
 could certainly be wrong, of course.)  But since I can't bring
 the system up I don't know how to recreate /etc/ld.so.cache .

 My mistake was not finding out what ldconfig did before I ran
 it.  So I guess I'm getting what I deserved.  Regardless, I'm
 hoping that someone else has done this before and can offer a
 solution.

Deeper background:
 I was trying to get the free downloadable version of WP8
 working.  I found some old libraries and had wisely installed
 them into something like /usr/local/oldlibs.  I had created a
 script which set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include
 /usr/local/oldlibs.

 I had actually progressed to the point that xwp would pop up a
 splash screen and the segfault (which was better than what I
 originally had which was just a segfault).

 I was trying to figure out what I might still have wrong and
 found http://www.linuxmafia.com/wpfaq/downloadwp8.html .  I was
 fine until the part where I became root and did the
   ldconfig -v | grep libm.so.5

 Of course, since the libm what I wanted was in
 /usr/local/oldlibs, I set my LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable like I had
 in my script.  Then I ran
   ldconfig -v | grep libm.so.5
 and everything broke.  :-(

 I tried booting knoppix and using the /etc/ld.so.cache there but
 the kernel still paniced upon reboot.  I don't know if the
 kernel paniced the same way or not.

ANY help highly appreciated!

Thanks!

- Bill
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Bill Benedetto     <bbenedetto@goodyear.com>    The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.
I don't speak for Goodyear and they don't speak for me.  We're both happy.