Gentle People,

My installation of 6.4 was running fine until I went to try and install Real
Player.  Real Player failed to install (with an error 38) however that is
not the question.

Netscape doesn't start when called as an ordinary user.  It does start when
called from root.  This error only started after I installed (and I have
since removed) Real Player.  I have also tried uninstalling Netscape, and
then re-installing it again.  The error I get is

"error in loading shared libraries: libXmu.so.6: cannot open shared object
file: No such file or directory."

I have found libXmu.so.6 living in /usr/X11R6/lib and edited /etc/profile
value of PATH to include this, but this has not fixed the situation.

I have attempted also to run "xhost +" as an ordinary user and this fails
with a similar error.

I have some unix knowledge (specifically around HP-UX) so any pointers you
can give me to resolve this would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Randell D.
(please reply to rande...@yahoo.com or via my post at comp.os.linux.setup)

Alternatively there is a file in /etc which is used to set the system wide
default for load libraries. I think it is called ld.conf and is used by the
command ldconfig

Otherwise you could try moving the .netscape directory in your home
directory. With any luck this might stop netscape trying to load the missing
file

news:z2Hz5.9833$ly4.82773@NewsReader...

Sounds right.

/etc/ld.so.conf

or carefully inspect its contents to see if there's something you might change.
Removing the directory is somewhat drastic, I'd rather try something less so.

I have several of them;-)

[jcs@possum jcs]$ locate libXmu.so.6
/usr/i386-glibc20-linux/lib/libXmu.so.6
/usr/i386-glibc20-linux/lib/libXmu.so.6.0
/usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib/libXmu.so.6.0
/usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib/libXmu.so.6
/usr/X11R6.3/lib/libXmu.so.6
/usr/X11R6.3/lib/libXmu.so.6.0
[jcs@possum jcs]$

I guess you're missing one. Here's what rpm says about them:
[jcs@possum jcs]$ rpm -qif /usr/i386-glibc20-linux/lib/libXmu.so.6.0
Name        : compat-libs                  Relocations: (not relocateable)
Version     : 5.2                               Vendor: Red Hat Software
Release     : 2                             Build Date: Tue 25 May 1999 03:20:08 AM WST
Install date: Tue 23 Nov 1999 11:11:48 PM WST      Build Host: porky.devel.redhat.com
Group       : Development/Libraries         Source RPM: compat-libs-5.2-2.src.rpm
Size        : 2337039                          License: LGPL
Packager    : Red Hat Software <http://developer.redhat.com/bugzilla/>
Summary     : Runtime and developemnt libraries for Red Hat Linux 5.2 backwards compatibility
Description :
This package includes a number of run-time libraries that are compiled on
Red Hat Linux 5.2. This package is required if you want to do development
for Red Hat Linux 5.2 and other glibc 2.0 based systems.
                  [jcs@possum jcs]$ rpm -qif /usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib/libXmu.so.6.0
                  Name        : libc                         Relocations: (not relocateable)
                  Version     : 5.3.12                            Vendor: Red Hat Software
                  Release     : 31                            Build Date: Fri 16 Apr 1999 12:46:03 PM WST
                  Install date: Tue 23 Nov 1999 11:17:47 PM WST      Build Host: porky.devel.redhat.com
                  Group       : System Environment/Libraries   Source RPM: libc-5.3.12-31.src.rpm
                  Size        : 5494780                          License: distributable
                  Packager    : Red Hat Software <http://developer.redhat.com/bugzilla>
                  Summary     : The compatibility libraries needed by old libc.so.5 applications.
                  Description :
                  Older Linux systems (including all Red Hat Linux releases between 2.0
                  and 4.2, inclusive) were based on libc version 5. The libc package
                  includes the libc5 libraries and other libraries based on libc5.  With
                  these libraries installed, old applications which need them will be able
                  to run on your glibc (libc version 6) based system.

                  The libc package should be installed so that you can run older applications
                  which need libc version 5.
                  [jcs@possum jcs]$ rpm -qif /usr/X11R6.3/lib/libXmu.so.6
                  Name        : XFree86-libs                 Relocations: (not relocateable)
                  Version     : 3.3.6                             Vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
                  Release     : 20                            Build Date: Tue 07 Mar 2000 12:22:34 AM WST
                  Install date: Sat 08 Apr 2000 09:11:08 AM WST      Build Host: porky.devel.redhat.com
                  Group       : System Environment/Libraries   Source RPM: XFree86-3.3.6-20.src.rpm
                  Size        : 2107376                          License: MIT
                  Packager    : Red Hat, Inc. <http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla>
                  Summary     : Shared libraries needed by the X Window System version 11 release 6.
                  Description :
                  XFree86-libs contains the shared libraries that most X programs
                  need to run properly. These shared libraries are in a separate package
                  in order to reduce the disk space needed to run X applications on a
                  machine without an X server (i.e., over a network).

                  If you are installing the X Window System on your machine, you will
                  need to install XFree86-libs.  You will also need to install the
                  following packages: XFree86, one or more of the XFree86 fonts
                  packages, Xconfigurator, XFree86-xfs and X11R6-contrib.  If you are
                  going to develop applications that run as X clients, you will also
                  need to install XFree86-devel.
                  [jcs@possum jcs]$

--

Perhaps is often, but shouldn't be.

LD_LIBRARY_PATH is the most frequently used hack (on many OS)--but a hack.
Most of the time it's easy, works fast and well.

But this variable has highest priority for search order.
(Well, apart from LD_PRELOAD, but that's not usual stuff.)
Thus LD_LIBRARY_PATH is the backdoor for unexpected cases / problems.

In short: one shouldn't need to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH for
the standard applications.

And, if programmers set this variable they won't get used to compile the
search path into the binary (or at least supply a good wrapper).

And, all people using such a badly compiled binary have to adjust
LD_LIBRARY_PATH, too (or write a wrapper).  This can lead to conflicts
with binaries, which correctly have compiled in a different path to a
slightly different library, so other wrappers might be needed again
suddenly.

I still have problems from time to time with a site wide LD_LIBRARY_PATH
containing the path to X11 libraries.

ldconfig(8) and the linker option '-rpath'
('-Wl,-rpath' for the gcc frontend) are ones friend.

Binary packages certainly need a wrapper (or ldconfig), as they
and their libraries should be installable at an arbitrary place.

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Sven