[CentOS] Centos 4.4 Problems not i586 compatible

[Kevin K]

On Mar 24, 2007, at 9:05 PM, junk at realtechtalk.com wrote:

> Karanbir Singh wrote:
>> junk at realtechtalk.com wrote:
>>> I promise not to top post anymore :)
>>
>> Excellent!
>>
>>> Do you know why the problem I'm describing could be happening?
>>
>> its all assumption at this stage since you've not really said what  
>> breaks or how it does not work
>>
>>> All other packages I have are i386.
>>> I've taken the binary from bash i386 and I did ldd
>>> I copied all relevant files to the livecd but it only works on i686.
>>
>> What do you really mean by 'it only works with i686' - which part  
>> of the livecd is failing ? how did you create this livecd ? what  
>> kernel and glibc / init process are you using etc ?
>>
>> - KB
>>
>
> Hi KB
>
> What I've done is taken a generic 2.6.18.3 Kernel and compiled with  
> i386 support.
> All I have on the livecd now since I started from scratch is a copy  
> of the dev entries in centos.
>
> All the disc does is run init and load bash.  The init itself is a  
> bash script which just tells /bin/bash to execute
> I have all the .so files as mentioned in my previous e-mails copied  
> to the relevant places.
>
> When I run the disc on any i686 machine it works but if I take it  
> to an i586 it halts after the kernel loads.
> There is no error message, I can type things but bash never  
> actually executed (remember this disc works fine and loads bash  
> like it should on an i686 machine).
>
> I am using Centos 4.4 Server CD, it comes standard with an i686  
> glibc installed but I downloaded  
> glibc.i386                               2.3.4-2.25
> and run "rpm -Uvh glibc-rpm.name --force" to install it over top of  
> glibc.i686
>
> I hope that explains it.  The bottom line is the disc works on any  
> i686 machine but not an i386.
> I almost wonder if somehow some of the i386 glibc .so's are not  
> i386 as it claims?\\

I've had problems in the past when trying to convert a RHEL  
distribution to one that can run on lesser platforms, such as 486s or  
Pentiums.  Glibcs are not the easiest thing to replace, since you are  
normally trying to downgrade them on the fly, so you can't just  
remove the old one to ensure it is gone, then install the new one.

I've seen the /lib/i686 directory being left behind when trying an  
upgrade like you listed above, so you may want to check that there  
isn't the i686 version of the libs remaining along with the 386  
version.  If so, it could be loading that instead, and failing on a  
Pentium.