Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

I am having problems compiling ncurses with the assistance of Doug 
Kaufmann, an expert compiler, who thinks this is because I have updated 
the runtime libraries (glibc and cxxlibs) but not the compiler.

I updated the runtime libraries so I could use Opera 7.23.

I left the older compiler so I could compile programs that would work for 
basiclinux users with the older libraries.


This mixture of older compiler and newer runtime libraries is apparently 
also what is preventing me from installing RealPlayer8 - it installs just 
fine on a computer with both sets of libraries updated, or with newer 
runtime libraries but no compiler.

Would it be reasonable to compile for the newer runtime libraries instead?
(Update both compiler and runtime libraries).  The runtime libraries are 
easily installed (the ones from SW81) and are not terribly large.
This is likely to offend purists, but would it be possible to instruct 
people to download these two libraries to start with, instead of using the 
SW71 equivalent(s)?    I have had no problems with backward compatibility 
except with the compiler from SW71.  (There is some problem with finding 
'atexit').

I ran into a similar problem with the precompiled Kermit, which was
compiled for SW71 with updated libraries.  Nobody could understand why I
did not want to update my libraries.  Someone at Kermit said I was 
exposing myself to a greater risk of internet attacks by using the older 
libraries.  Someone very very kindly set up Slackware 7.1 original for use 
to compile Kermit specifically for this purpose.  (In exchange for this I 
spent about 10 hours helping with a pet linguistic project).  

If I am really not supposed to use the newer compiler, what exactly do I
need to do in order to get back to the original situation?  I tried
reinstalling glibc.tgz and that did not fix either problem (ncurses
compilation or realaudio installation).  I tried making a new symlink (as
advised by Doug).  Do I need to uninstall the two new packages as well as
reinstalling the old ones?  (I am concerned if I do that linux might stop
working entirely but I suppose I can rescue it from RAM unless installpkg
uses the libraries - does it?)

This has been taking up a lot of time and I would appreciate other people 
helping to decide whether I can simply use the newer compiler and compile 
only for people who have the newer runtime libraries.  

The precompiled ncurses from SW80 works fine with basiclinux for running
programs that require it (screen, retawq) but apparently is not adequate
for compiling with.  libncurses.a is too small for some reason.  I also
had to recompile openssl and zlib.  Doug says our system is a bit strange.  
He seems to like challenges but I have been doing this for two months and
would like to make life a bit easier now, and if I ever have the ambition 
to compile anything again.  

I suggest that the instructions for putting bl3 on hard drive include 
replacing the busybox programs with their full-size versions.  I keep 
running into programs that don't work quite right - find, sort, tail.
It took a few days to figure out the problem in each case and replace the 
pertinent busybox program.  Some are in txtutils - where are the others?
They probably don't take up more room than I made by deleting all the 
locale files (1M).