slackware_multilib

In slackware-current two inter-related packages were updated yesterday: libmpc and gcc. It turns out that the update of libmpc caused a library version change. Since the gcc compiler is dynamically linked to libmpc, the gcc packages had to be recompiled in order to make it link against the new libmpc.so.3 library. Another reason for recompiling the gcc package was the missing libiberty.a file. The gcc.SlackBuild needed an additional configuration parameter to make it install into the package again.

Unfortunately that slackware-current update broke the multilib gcc packages which I have in my own repository, as several people noticed … the quick’n’dirty fix was (cd /usr/lib64 ; ln -s libmpc.so.3 libmpc.so.2).

I have recompiled the multilib gcc twice (after applying Slackware’s updates to the gcc-multilib.SlackBuild): first compilation was done with that symlink created like I just described. That resulted in the desired linkage to the new libmpc.so.3 library. Then I removed the symlink which I had created earlier and compiled the gcc packages again, just to be sure (for Slackware, this double compilation was performed as well).

The new gcc packages are now online, along with an update to the massconvert32.sh script which is part of the compat32-tools package. Also I refreshed the set of 32-bit “compat32” packages which I create from the official 32-bit Slackware package tree, because there were several updated packages in Slackware (again), and I added the libva-intel-driver-compat32 package on request.

Here is where you can find the updated packages:

If you wonder what this multilib is all about: it is needed if you want to use (binary-only) 32-bit software on 64-bit Slackware. Examples of that are Skype, Valve’s Steam Client, the WINE emulator, the Pipelight browser plugin, Citrix client etc.

Instructions on how to add or update multilib on your 64-bit Slackware can be found on the Slackware Documentation Project. Also, the slackpkg+ extension to Slackware’s own slackpkg contains the script “setupmultilib.sh” which can help you in setting up multilib properly.

 

Enjoy! Eric

PS: The nice graphic at the top was taken from the page http://gnu-linux-slackware.blogspot.nl/2013/01/switch-to-multilib-with-32-bit.html which is a Slackware related blog by Ismail.