lfs-book/chapter05/glibc-inst.xml

<sect2><title>&nbsp;</title><para>&nbsp;</para></sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Glibc installation</title>

<para>Before starting to install Glibc, you must <userinput>cd</userinput>
into the <filename>glibc-&glibc-version;</filename> directory and unpack
Glibc-linuxthreads in that directory, not in <filename>/usr/src</filename> as
you would normally do.</para>

<para>This package is known to behave badly when you have changed its
default optimization flags (including the -march and -mcpu options).
Therefore, if you have defined any environment variables that override
default optimizations, such as CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, we recommend unsetting
them when building Glibc.</para>

<para>Basically, compiling Glibc in any other way than the book suggests
is putting the stability of your system at risk.</para>

<para>Though it is a harmless message, the install stage of Glibc will
complain about the absence of <filename>/etc/ld.so.conf</filename>.
Fix this annoying little error with:</para>

<para><screen><userinput>mkdir /stage1/etc
touch /stage1/etc/ld.so.conf</userinput></screen></para>

<para>The documentation that comes with Glibc recommends to build the package
not in the source directory but in a separate, dedicated directory:</para>

<para><screen><userinput>mkdir ../glibc-build
cd ../glibc-build</userinput></screen></para>

<para>Next, prepare Glibc to be compiled:</para>

<para><screen><userinput>../glibc-&glibc-version;/configure --prefix=/stage1 \
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;--disable-profile --enable-add-ons \
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;--with-headers=/stage1/include \
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;--with-binutils=/stage1/bin \
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;--without-gd</userinput></screen></para>

<para>The meaning of the new configure options is:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><userinput>--disable-profile</userinput>: This disables the
building of the libraries with profiling information. Omit this option if you
plan to do profiling.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para><userinput>--enable-add-ons</userinput>: This enables any
add-ons that were installed with Glibc, in our case Linuxthreads.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para><userinput>--with-binutils=/stage1/bin</userinput> and
<userinput>--with-headers=/stage1/include</userinput>: Strictly speaking
these switches are not required. But they ensure nothing can go wrong with
regard to what kernel headers and Binutils programs get used during the
Glibc build.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para><userinput> --without-gd</userinput>: This switch ensures
that we don't build the <userinput>memusagestat</userinput> program, which
strangely enough insists on linking against the host's libraries (libgd,
libpng, libz, and so forth).</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>During this stage you will see the following warning:</para>

<blockquote><screen>configure: warning:
*** These auxiliary programs are missing or too old: msgfmt
*** some features will be disabled.
*** Check the INSTALL file for required versions.</screen></blockquote>

<para>The missing <filename>msgfmt</filename> program (from the Gettext
package, which we'll install later) won't cause any problems. The
<filename>msgfmt</filename> is used to generate the binary translation
files that can make your system talk in a different language. Because these
translation files have already been generated for you, there is no need for
<filename>msgfmt</filename>. You'd only need the program if you change the
translation source files (the <filename>*.po</filename> files in the
<filename class="directory">po</filename> subdirectory), which
would require you to regenerate the binary files.</para>

<para>Continue with compiling the package:</para>

<para><screen><userinput>make
make check
make install</userinput></screen></para>

<para>The locales (used by Glibc to make your Linux system respond in a
different language) weren't installed when you ran the previous command,
so we have to do that ourselves now:</para>

<para><screen><userinput>make localedata/install-locales</userinput></screen></para>

<para>An alternative to running the previous command is to install only
those locales which you need or want. This can be achieved by using the
<userinput>localedef</userinput> command. Information on this can be
found in the <filename>INSTALL</filename> file in the
<filename>glibc-&glibc-version;</filename> tree.</para>

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