Wondering how I can install the Dropbox Linux CLI (which requires glibc 2.4) on my DreamHost VPS (which has glibc 2.3)…? I already tried copying a glibc 2.9 from an Ubuntu system and also built glibc 2.4 from scratch on the VPS and tried to use it with LD_LIBRARY_PATH and LD_PRELOAD, to no avail.

~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib$ ./dropbox 
./dropbox: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4' not found (required by ./dropbox)

~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib$ ls -l libc*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 msabramo pg156676 1331404 Apr 13 23:40 libc-2.9.so*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 msabramo pg156676      11 Apr 13 23:41 libc.so.6 -> libc-2.9.so*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 msabramo pg156676 1563432 Mar 28 12:50 libcrypto.so.0.9.8*

~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./dropbox
./dropbox: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4' not found (required by ./dropbox)

~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib$ LD_PRELOAD=/home/msabramo/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/libc-2.9.so ./dropbox
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/msabramo/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/libc-2.9.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
./dropbox: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4' not found (required by ./dropbox)

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ ~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox 
/home/msabramo/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4' not found 
(required by /home/msabramo/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox)

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox 
Segmentation fault

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ldd ~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox 
Segmentation fault

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ file ~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox
/home/msabramo/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), 
for GNU/Linux 2.6.8, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.8, stripped

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ file /lib/libc-2.3.6.so 
/lib/libc-2.3.6.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.0, stripped

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ file libc.so
libc.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.4.0, not stripped

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ uname -a
Linux wettoad 2.6.33.7-vs2.3.0.36.30.4 #23 SMP Tue Sep 28 05:47:35 PDT 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I don’t know why the libc.so says “for GNU/Linux 2.4.0” (it was built on this same Linux 2.6 system) and whether that is a problem or not…

Update 2011-04-14 10:28 PDT:

I rebuilt glibc-2.4 with --enable-kernel=2.6, --enable-nptl, and --enable-tls. Still seeing segfaults:

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ ldd ~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox 
/home/msabramo/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4' not found 
(required by /home/msabramo/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox)
        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f4f1f130000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f4f1f02d000)
        libutil.so.1 => /home/msabramo/run/lib/libutil.so.1 (0x00007f4f1ef2a000)
        libm.so.6 => /home/msabramo/run/lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007f4f1edaa000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007f4f1eb6d000)
        /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f4f1f245000)

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ file libc.so
libc.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, AMD x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.6.0, not stripped

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ldd ~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox 
Segmentation fault

~/sw/glibc-2.4/build/linux_2.6.33.7_x86_64$ LD_PRELOAD=./libc.so ldd ~/sw/dropbox_cli/lib/dropbox 
Segmentation fault