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[3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org]

Ron Clarke wrote:
>
> In my efforts to get my installation of BL2 to run more 
> and more players/viewers I finally overcooked it, and now
> I cannot get BL2 to even boot properly.

What does happen when you try to boot?

> I suspect there is not going to be a way to avoid re-
> formatting the partition and start builing it from 
> scratch.  

Don't give up just yet.

> I was pursuing bigger and better libraries.  I got as far 
> as the two glibc-2.2.5 libraries from Slakware8.1, and all 
> was fine.  

I've done that myself (by using installpkg) and it doesn't
cause a problem.

> Then I chased down a glibc-2.3- library for something Xine 
> wanted, and I finally found an .rpm 

As soon as I saw rpm, I knew the source of the problem.  
I always recommend that people DO NOT use rpms.

> of the right i386 sort - so I thought.  

It doesn't matter what sort they are.  They are almost 
guaranteed to bite you sooner or later.  

> But when I got MC to install it, I got a "corrupted
> binary that linked to errno.h, and stuff", 
> Then I tried to run Links-graphical (among others) and 
> got crash after crash. Including pkgtool and installpkg 

Redhat-type systems (that use the rpm) have a slightly
different file/directory structure, so a major package
(like a library upgrade) is likely to cause a mess.

> In my uneducated rush to fix it, I have now lost a lot 
> of the other libraries, 

What did you do?  Did you try deleting the new libarary?
Or the old libraries?

> and now it stops halfway through bootup to the message
> that libX.something not found or doesn't exist. 

Please make a note of the exact error messages.

> Is there a way to recover all the work that has gone 
> into this particular installation, 

Perhaps.  It depends on how much damage has been done.
The fact that it doesn't boot, doesn't mean the damage
is severe.  All it may need is an ldconfig.

I suggest you boot ramdisk BL2, mount the sick HD partition
at /mnt.  Then execute the following:
--------------------------
/mnt/sbin/ldconfig -r /mnt
--------------------------

Umount, reboot and make a note of the new error messages
(if any).

Cheers,
Steven