Fermi RedHat Linux 5.2 vs 6.1 Problem

We have recently discovered a problem with some of the various combinations of ways that Linux can be installed. The problem starts with the fact that Linux can come in a lot of different combinations of versions: old/new glibc, Red Hat 5.n/6.n, various Linux Kernals.

The problem arises with the interaction with Fermilab's ups/upd products. If you have a FermiRedHat (FRH) 5.n distribution but have one of the newer Linux Kernals installed ups "thinks" that you are running FRH6.n and will install products with the ups flavor "Linux+2.2". This is becoming common since we can't yet supply D0 code for the FRH6.n flavors but the newer machines *must* have the newer kernals to run.

If you install the Linux+2.2 of the newest version of ups, for example, but are running FRH5.n the program will core dump and you won't be able to do much of anything.

I have put a "ups hints" page onto the web with instructions on:

  1. Making sure you get Linux+2 and not Linux+2.2 versions of products
  2. Restoring an old version of ups even after you've done the full installation of a new but defective version.
See: UPS HINTS
Alan Jonckheere
Last modified: Thu Mar 23 17:29:25 CST 2000