My system is in big trouble. I removed glibc

cwc

I was trying to clean up my system and remove masked packages. I KNOW I KNOW. I screwed up.
So I removed glibc (not smart) and I was going to reinstall it .

Can I boot to a previous kernel and save my system?

I am currenly logged in as root and as a normal user.
I can not su - from a normal user.

Here is my group information:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 4:24 pm Post subject:

cwc,

If you have not rebooted, the bits in memery are still there. If you reboot, it will fail as almost eveything needs glibc. e.g. bash.
The easiest way to fix it is to get a binary tarball of the correct glibc from a trusted source and untar it to your root filesystem.

If you use FEATURES=buildpkg, you already have a suitable binary.

You can't start new programs that need glibc so you will need to use a statically built busybox, or reboot using a liveCD.
chrooting won't work ... no bash.

If you need a binhost, try http://packages.gentooexperimental.org/packages/
Do not downgrade glibc accidently.

If you need more details post back.

Oh many years ago emerge --depclean did this to me :)
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

cwc · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 4:44 pm Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 4:58 pm Post subject:

cwc,

Reboot using live media,
Mount your gentoo at /mnt/gentoo as if you were going to chroot.
Fetch your glibc from gentooexperimental.org to say /tmp
Now treat it as a single package stage3

cwc · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 5:11 pm Post subject:

cwc · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 1:02 pm Post subject: I've decided to rebuild my system

Please throw me a bone if I forgot anything. Thanks wise one!

I got thing to work on my system. But I'd like to rebuild the os from scratch again.
Thanks for the help. This system has been running for a few years. 3 or 4.

- I will use the systemRC CD or usb to install the system.
And use this guide: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation

I will get a new hard drive 500 GB then my back drives ate 2x1tb.

I'd like to post my check list of files to keep for reference:

1. /etc/make.conf
2. /usr/portage/ package.use files package.mask package.use package.keywords package.unmask
3. /etc/fstab
4. /etc/conf.d/net

azzerare conf.d # more net
#cwc new 140119
dns_domain_lo="azzerare"
config_eth0="192.168.1.14/24"
config_eth0="192.168.1.14 netmask 255.255.255.0"
dns_servers_eth0="192.168.1.1"
routes_eth0="default via 192.168.1.1"
_________________
Without diversity there can be no evolution:)

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 8:06 pm Post subject:

cwc,

For a rebuild, thats a lot of work.

If you really want a rebuild, this is in place.

cwc · Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2015 12:07 am Post subject:

Epic post. Good to know about make.conf
Thank you Neddy

I'm going to to do both just for fun.
_________________
Without diversity there can be no evolution:)

jonathan183 · Guru Joined: 13 Dec 2011 Posts: 318

Nice post NeddySeagoon

I'd take a copy of
/etc the whole tree
/usr/src/linux/.config
/home or wherever else you keep user data
/var/lib/portage/world so you have a list of whats installed
and /usr/local/portage or wherever else you have local overlay information

... other stuff is install specific

cwc · Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 2:35 am Post subject:

cwc · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 5:11 am Post subject:

Neddy,

This did the trick. "tar -xpf /tmp/glibc-2.20-r2.tbz2 -C /mnt/gentoo"
After I chroot my system from the sys-rescue-cd.
I'll stick with this system. It's too old.

I think I'll find some parts and build another gentoo box rather than fix this one.

Now for a lesson:

What exactly does this do:
tar -xpf /tmp/glibc-2.20-r2.tbz2 -C /mnt/gentoo"

-x = extract
-p = preserve (? the location)
-f = (? file)

what does the -C do?

Thanks again.
_________________
Without diversity there can be no evolution:)

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:35 pm Post subject:

cwc,

-p is preserve permissions on the extracted file(s)

-C is Change dir so the unpacked files go into /mnt/gentoo regardless oy your current dir.
The default is to unpack to ./