[prefix] Updating glibc failed

zhuyan · n00b Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 58

I got following error message saying that kernel version is too low to support NPTL.

I add "-nptl" in global USE flag. It still can't get thing through. Any clue on this?

Error message:

russK · l33t Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 665

zhuyan,

Is this a new install and you are following the handbook?

zhuyan · n00b Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 58

russK,

I am doing a bootstrap, which is a project letting gentoo portage running on old linux server.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Prefix

russK · l33t Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 665

nptl is still showing in your 'emerge --info'

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21605

zhuyan · n00b Joined: 30 Mar 2006 Posts: 58

Hu,

I think you are right! I am using a wrong profile.

Thanks

Yan

heilong · n00b Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 45

I'm running into the same problem.

I have a VPS (Virtual Private Server) running Gentoo, the kernel is 2.6.32 and can't be upgraded.

My profile is "default/linux/x86/17.0/hardened (stable)"

The release notes for glibc 2.26 mention:

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21605

Your choices are to upgrade your kernel or not to upgrade glibc. If your VPS provider cannot support a newer kernel, find a better provider. v2.6.32 is abandoned upstream. Even with the extended support that Willy Tarreau provided, v2.6.32.x has not been patched since March 2016. Based on what you provided, it's not clear that your provider is even current with that release. Even if you are current to the last v2.6.32.x release, you are now 2.5 years out of date, and that is assuming that all relevant patches were reliably backported. Considering the nature of stable kernel backports, there is no guarantee that all patches that should have been backported were. (This is not a criticism of Willy Tarreau, or Greg KH, or any of the other stable maintainers. It is a fundamental limitation of how the stable process works.)

heilong · n00b Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 45

Hey Hu,

Thanks for your detailed reply. I was not aware that this kernel is so outdated! Heh, when I learned Linux, 2.4 was the norm and 2.6 was the cutting edge, and now it's a dinosaur... time flies!
Not updating `glibc` is not a viable solution, already if I mask `glibc>=2.26`, there's some other package update that pulls it in, in the end I would have to mask more and more packages, until at some point most of my software would be not updatable.
I've opened a support ticket with my VPS hosting provider, will see what they answer.

By the way, it seems that the default profile that I'm using now requires linux>=3.2 (at run-time) because of the glibc version.
It would be nice if, when running an emerge update, it would detect the outdated kernel and fail at the dependency resolution process, and not later - during the glibc build, like is happening now?

Thanks

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21605

Gentoo is a rolling distribution, and for better or worse, part of that is not supporting freezing only part of the system. If you can't update the kernel, you probably will need to freeze other parts, and the freeze will grow over time as frozen parts impede upgrades of unfrozen ones, forcing you to freeze those parts, which will then impede other packages. If you need to freeze anything, you should plan now for which components must be kept current (for security fixes) and determine how you will do that. We may be able to help. If you want help, post a separate thread explaining the situation: some packages must freeze, packages X, Y, Z must keep upgrading, etc. The exact solution, if one exists, will depend greatly on which packages you need to keep current.

If you don't mind, who is your hosting provider? I thought all the major ones had moved on by now.

Note that this forum doesn't use Markdown (which I suspect you were trying to invoke with your use of backticks). It follows the older convention of having select HTML reinvented with square brackets rather than angle brackets.

Regarding dependency resolution, yes, it would be nice if that worked, but given how far back even 3.2 is, I am surprised anyone even thought it worthwhile to put the explicit blocker into the tree to save you from breaking the system with the upgrade.

heilong · n00b Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 45

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I understand the consequences of freezing, and how it will become more and more hard to maintain as time passes.

The hosting provider is RapidVPS, I've been using them for almost 10 years. They were one of the few providers offering Gentoo VPSes at the time, however a few years later they stopped offering Gentoo as a choice for new VPSes. They didn't shut down existing Gentoo customers, though. My friend also has a VPS with them, running CentOS, it's running on the same 2.6.32 kernel. It looks like somebody didn't care to keep things up to date.

Their support had just replied to my ticket, saying that they are working on a solution that would provide a newer kernel, I'll wait for some time before I complain to them more.

You're right about Markdown, using backticks just became a habit... I guess even if they are not supported, people will likely understand their meaning. But I'll keep it in mind about using BBCodes for something more important.

Thanks again for your time

ddriver · n00b Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 67

I have the same problem with A2 hosting. They still run 2.6.32 and I know that this is very soon going to start causing me a problem when I am unable to remain current.

Other than that they are a great provider. Fast reliable server and very good value.
_________________
Anything but a n00b. Grrr! Unix since '87, Linux since '95, Gentoo since early noughties. I'm a guy who knows how to Google for solutions instead of asking idiot questions.

heilong · n00b Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 45

Well, I no longer have that problem anymore.
I pestered RapidVPS for a while about this topic (as well as 64-bit support), and then one day I suddenly got an email that my VPS was accidentally nuked during some migration. No backups, no options to bring it back. No VPS - no problem, right?

I'm now looking into other services, or possibly just buying my own server and put it in a data center nearby...

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21605

Depending on your needs, you might look at the major cloud providers: Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud, Google's Compute Engine, Microsoft's Azure, etc. Suitability will depend on what you are willing to pay and how much virtual hardware you need.

ddriver · n00b Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 67

I received a message back from my provider. They use OpenVZ. They don't have any upgrade plans or any servers with a newer kernel. They didn't seem too concerned about the problem.

Looks like my only option is to find a new provider. I suppose I can survive a few months with a partially supported or unsupported system, so I have time to make new plans.
_________________
Anything but a n00b. Grrr! Unix since '87, Linux since '95, Gentoo since early noughties. I'm a guy who knows how to Google for solutions instead of asking idiot questions.

heilong · n00b Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 45

Yeah RapidVPS are also using OpenVZ, and OpenVZ is still on 2.16.
I don't want to go AWS or another cloud computing way because I mostly agree with: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.en.html
I will probably buy a second-hand server that I will manage myself. That would be more expensive than a VPS, of course.