how to prepare older Linux systems for 2007 DST changes (part II)
In my previous post, I theorized that tzdata RPM from FC1 (Fedora Core 1) updates repository would be useful to prepare old Linux systems such as RHL 9 (redhat Linux 9) or older, without having to upgrade glibc and glibc-common packages. It turned out that the original RHL 9 release had /usr/share/zoneinfo as part of glibc rpm package. It remains to be the case unless glibc rpm is upgraded to version 2.3.2-64 (Mon Jul 28 2003) or newer. Therefore, the glibc actually does need to be upgraded to at least 2.3.2-64, to take advantage of the steps to prepare older Linux systems for 2007 DST changes using an updated tzdata rpm as discussed in an earlier post.
Since fedoralegacy project is shutting down, there’re not much places you can find updated packages for RHL 9 or older. I found a set of glibc RPMs from GA Tech’s FC1 updates repository. Here is a list of RPMs you can use to upgrade your RHL9 systems. Please note that on our RHL9 servers, JDK-1.5.0 series has serious problems with glibc-2.3.2-71. The latter was recommended over older versions for Sybase ASE 12.5 series on RHL 9 servers.
- glibc-2.3.2-101.4.i686.rpm
- glibc-common-2.3.2-101.4.i386.rpm
- glibc-devel-2.3.2-101.4.i386.rpm
- glibc-utils-2.3.2-101.4.i386.rpm
- glibc-headers-2.3.2-101.4.i386.rpm
You will need to install the corresponding tzdata rpm from FC1 updates listed here to satisfy dependency. So far, I’ve sucecessfully upgraded two RHL 9 servers. Both were at glibc-2.3.2-27 before the upgrade.
For your reference, the actual change log for glibc is excerpted here:
* Mon Jul 28 2003 Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com> 2.3.2-64
- move /usr/share/zoneinfo to tzdata package, so that it can be errataed separately from glibc
Since glibc is shared across Linux distributions, the glibc upgrades discussed here will be required of any Linux systems with glibc older than 2.3.2-64, in order to utilize the tzdata rpm packages updated for 2007 DST changes. I’d assume this include RHEL 2 and RHEL 3 series. That is, of course, you want to stick with the RPM route. There are ways you can compile your own zoneinfo database from scratch (man zic).
