libc6 broken - Can't install any apps - Hardy 8.04

[Derek Broughton]

Ric Moore wrote:

> 
> On Fri, 2008-09-12 at 18:53 -0700, Rick Knight wrote:
> 
>> Because of the broken libc6-i686 I am unable to install encfs. How can I
>> fix this?
> 
> It's been my experience that when the upgrade process upgrades anything
> like libc it's best for your machine to be in stupid mode

I haven't had a problem with this since the upgrade processed
introduced "deferred" processing for ldconfig, but the simple solution for
this specific case is usually:

# sudo aptitude remove libc6-i686
# sudo aptitude -f install
# sudo aptitude ...  
(ie, whatever you were really trying to do - installing encfs, upgrading,
etc)
# sudo aptitude install libc6-i686

You never _need_ libc6-i686, it just provides some optimized routines, and
it's possible to get libc6 and libc6-i686 out of sync.

> , booting from 
> a CD or DVD image, and it has mounted your file system to make the
> change over as either an "fresh install" or "upgrade", not while running
> live. You may get lucky and re-boot to find everything peachy or find
> everything in smoke and ruins. <grins>

That's not even worth a <grin>.  There's nothing funny about a system so
b0rked that it can't be upgraded.  Personally, I think you're foolishly
paranoid, but if you really believe the upgrade process is this dangerous
you should be filing bug reports and trying to help fix it.

In this particularly case, it can't possibly have anything to do with Rick's
upgrade anyway.  libc6 doesn't just stop working a week after it's
modified. It's got to be the actual encfs install.
-- 
derek