10.6.1. Installation of Glibc
![[Note]](../images/note.png)
Note
Some packages outside of CLFS suggest installing GNU libiconv
in order to translate data from one encoding to another. The
project's home page (http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/)
says “This library provides an
iconv() implementation, for use on
systems which don't have one, or whose implementation cannot
convert from/to Unicode.” Glibc provides an
iconv() implementation and can
convert from/to Unicode, therefore libiconv is not required on
a CLFS system.
The Glibc build system is self-contained and will install
perfectly, even though the compiler specs file and linker are still
pointing at /tools. The specs and linker
cannot be adjusted before the Glibc install because the Glibc
Autoconf tests would give false results and defeat the goal of
achieving a clean build.
The following patch fixes an issue that can cause
localdef to segfault:
patch -Np1 -i ../glibc-2.4-localedef_segfault-1.patch
The following patch fixes an issue with iconv:
patch -Np1 -i ../glibc-2.4-iconv_fix-1.patch
The following sed
fixes a build issue with Glibc. This will prevent
nscd from trying to
link to libraries that don't exist:
cp -v nscd/Makefile{,.orig}
sed -e "/nscd_stat.o: sysincludes = # nothing/d" nscd/Makefile.orig > \
nscd/Makefile
The Glibc documentation recommends building Glibc outside of the
source directory in a dedicated build directory:
mkdir -v ../glibc-build
cd ../glibc-build
Tell Glibc to install its libraries into /lib:
echo "slibdir=/lib" >> configparms
Prepare Glibc for compilation:
../glibc-2.4/configure --prefix=/usr \
--disable-profile --enable-add-ons --enable-kernel=2.6.0 \
--libexecdir=/usr/lib/glibc --libdir=/usr/lib
The meaning of the new configure option:
-
--libexecdir=/usr/lib/glibc
-
This changes the location of the pt_chown program from its default
of /usr/libexec to /usr/lib/glibc.
Compile the package:
make
![[Important]](../images/important.png)
Important
The test suite for Glibc is considered critical. Do not skip it
under any circumstance.
Test the results:
make -k check >glibc-check-log 2>&1 ; grep Error glibc-check-log
The Glibc test suite is highly dependent on certain functions of
the host system, in particular the kernel. The posix/annexc test
normally fails and you should see Error 1
(ignored) in the output. Apart from this, the Glibc test suite
is always expected to pass. However, in certain circumstances, some
failures are unavoidable. If a test fails because of a missing
program (or missing symbolic link), or a segfault, you will see an
error code greater than 127 and the details will be in the log.
More commonly, tests will fail with Error
2 - for these, the contents of the corresponding .out file, e.g. posix/annexc.out may be informative. Here is a list
of the most common issues:
-
The math tests
sometimes fail. Certain optimization settings are known to be
a factor here.
-
If you have mounted the CLFS partition with the noatime option, the atime test will fail. As mentioned
in Section 2.4,
“Mounting the New Partition”, do not use the
noatime option while
building CLFS.
-
When running on older and slower hardware, some tests can
fail because of test timeouts being exceeded.
Though it is a harmless message, the install stage of Glibc will
complain about the absence of /etc/ld.so.conf. Prevent this warning with:
touch /etc/ld.so.conf
The install will finish by checking that everything is correctly
installed. Unfortunately, it will test for a multilib installation.
On x86_64 Pure64 this means it will try to test the non-existent
32-bit loader which has a different name from the 64-bit loader
(unlike on other 64-bit architectures). We fool it by creating a
symlink to the real loader.
ln -sv ld-2.4.so /lib/ld-linux.so.2
Install the package:
make install
Now we can remove this symlink. We also need to correct the
/usr/bin/ldd script -
if you look at this, you will see it references not only the 32-bit
linker, but also /lib64 where it thinks the 64-bit linker is. The
following sed will
correct this:
rm -v /lib/ld-linux.so.2
cp -v /usr/bin/ldd{,.bak}
sed '/RTLDLIST/s%/ld-linux.so.2 /lib64%%' /usr/bin/ldd.bak >/usr/bin/ldd
Check the script to make sure the sed worked correctly, then delete
the backup.
rm -v /usr/bin/ldd.bak
10.6.2. Internationalization
The locales that can make the system respond in a different
language were not installed by the above command. Install them
with:
make localedata/install-locales
To save time, an alternative to running the previous command (which
generates and installs every locale listed in the
glibc-2.4/localedata/SUPPORTED file) is to install only those
locales that are wanted and needed. This can be achieved by using
the localedef
command. Information on this command is located in the INSTALL file in the Glibc source. However, there
are a number of locales that are essential in order for the tests
of future packages to pass, in particular, the libstdc++ tests from GCC. The following
instructions, instead of the install-locales target used above, will
install the minimum set of locales necessary for the tests to run
successfully:
mkdir -pv /usr/lib/locale
localedef -i de_DE -f ISO-8859-1 de_DE
localedef -i de_DE@euro -f ISO-8859-15 de_DE@euro
localedef -i en_HK -f ISO-8859-1 en_HK
localedef -i en_PH -f ISO-8859-1 en_PH
localedef -i en_US -f ISO-8859-1 en_US
localedef -i es_MX -f ISO-8859-1 es_MX
localedef -i fa_IR -f UTF-8 fa_IR
localedef -i fr_FR -f ISO-8859-1 fr_FR
localedef -i fr_FR@euro -f ISO-8859-15 fr_FR@euro
localedef -i it_IT -f ISO-8859-1 it_IT
localedef -i ja_JP -f EUC-JP ja_JP
Some locales installed by the make
localedata/install-locales command above are not
properly supported by some applications that are in the CLFS and
BLFS books. Because of the various problems that arise due to
application programmers making assumptions that break in such
locales, CLFS should not be used in locales that utilize multibyte
character sets (including UTF-8) or right-to-left writing order.
Numerous unofficial and unstable patches are required to fix these
problems, and it has been decided by the CLFS developers not to
support such complex locales at this time. This applies to the
ja_JP and fa_IR locales as well—they have been installed only
for GCC and Gettext tests to pass, and the watch program (part of the Procps
package) does not work properly in them. Various attempts to
circumvent these restrictions are documented in
internationalization-related hints.
10.6.3. Configuring Glibc
The /etc/nsswitch.conf file needs to be
created because, although Glibc provides defaults when this file is
missing or corrupt, the Glibc defaults do not work well in a
networked environment. The time zone also needs to be configured.
Create a new file /etc/nsswitch.conf by
running the following:
cat > /etc/nsswitch.conf << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/nsswitch.conf
passwd: files
group: files
shadow: files
hosts: files dns
networks: files
protocols: files
services: files
ethers: files
rpc: files
# End /etc/nsswitch.conf
EOF
To determine the local time zone, run the following script:
tzselect
After answering a few questions about the location, the script will
output the name of the time zone (e.g., EST5EDT or Canada/Eastern). Then create the
/etc/localtime file by running:
cp -v --remove-destination /usr/share/zoneinfo/[xxx] \
/etc/localtime
Replace [xxx] with the name
of the time zone that tzselect provided (e.g., Canada/Eastern).
The meaning of the cp option:
-
--remove-destination
-
This is needed to force removal of the already existing
symbolic link. The reason for copying the file instead of
using a symlink is to cover the situation where /usr is on a separate partition. This could
be important when booted into single user mode.
10.6.4. Configuring The Dynamic Loader
By default, the dynamic loader (/lib/ld-linux.so.2) searches through /lib and /usr/lib for
dynamic libraries that are needed by programs as they are run.
However, if there are libraries in directories other than
/lib and /usr/lib, these need to be added to the /etc/ld.so.conf file in order for the dynamic
loader to find them. Two directories that are commonly known to
contain additional libraries are /usr/local/lib and /opt/lib, so add those directories to the dynamic
loader's search path.
Create a new file /etc/ld.so.conf by
running the following:
cat > /etc/ld.so.conf << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/ld.so.conf
/usr/local/lib
/opt/lib
# End /etc/ld.so.conf
EOF