Thread: Problems updating to 8.3.5

I have a Slackware 10.2.0 machine which has been happily serving files,
Apache, Pg, etc. across my home network for some time. I had no problem
installing pg 8.2.1 on it. But now when I try to install 8.3.5,
configure dies complaining that gcc can't build an executable. Looking
at the log, it says crt1.o does not exist. I looked, and sure enough, it
doesn't exist. Apart from sounding like a DOS run time package, why does
the new version need it while 8.2 didn't? Where do I get or make a copy
so I can build the latest engine?

Bob McConnell
N2SPP

Bob McConnell <rmcconne@lightlink.com> writes:
> I have a Slackware 10.2.0 machine which has been happily serving files,
> Apache, Pg, etc. across my home network for some time. I had no problem
> installing pg 8.2.1 on it. But now when I try to install 8.3.5,
> configure dies complaining that gcc can't build an executable. Looking
> at the log, it says crt1.o does not exist. I looked, and sure enough, it
> doesn't exist.

Well, you changed something else on that machine since installing 8.2.1
... assuming you built 8.2.1 from source there; are you sure you didn't
install a prepackaged build?  This error says you've got a fundamentally
broken or incomplete C compilation environment, and that's not exactly
postgres' fault.

I don't know how Slackware divvies up this stuff, but you might need to
install packages labeled "C development tools" or some such if you want
to build PG from source.

            regards, tom lane

Tom Lane wrote:
> Bob McConnell <rmcconne@lightlink.com> writes:
>> I have a Slackware 10.2.0 machine which has been happily serving files,
>> Apache, Pg, etc. across my home network for some time. I had no problem
>> installing pg 8.2.1 on it. But now when I try to install 8.3.5,
>> configure dies complaining that gcc can't build an executable. Looking
>> at the log, it says crt1.o does not exist. I looked, and sure enough, it
>> doesn't exist.
>
> Well, you changed something else on that machine since installing 8.2.1
> ... assuming you built 8.2.1 from source there; are you sure you didn't
> install a prepackaged build?  This error says you've got a fundamentally
> broken or incomplete C compilation environment, and that's not exactly
> postgres' fault.
>
> I don't know how Slackware divvies up this stuff, but you might need to
> install packages labeled "C development tools" or some such if you want
> to build PG from source.
>
>             regards, tom lane

Hi Tom,

I installed 8.2.1 from source,using gcc 3.2.2. I still have the
config.log for that, dated Feb 3, 2007. I installed PHP 4.4.0 from
source earlier this year, along with Apache 1.3.33. The prepackaged kits
  for those did not have any of the options I wanted, since the
maintainers are hung up on MySQL. That box now has gcc 3.3.6 and GNU
make 3.80. I didn't see anything about a minimum version of GCC, etc. in
the documents. But was there a library change that requires a newer
compiler?

I don't like the idea of upgrading that box to a newer version of
Slackware, but that's probably the cleanest way to get everything back
in sync. It's only a 450 MHz P-II, and rebuilding everything will take
all weekend. I also have to remove two of the disk drives and put an
optical drive back in. But if I have to, that's probably the next step.

Thanks,

Bob McConnell
N2SPP

Bob McConnell <rmcconne@lightlink.com> writes:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>> Bob McConnell <rmcconne@lightlink.com> writes:
>>> I have a Slackware 10.2.0 machine which has been happily serving files,
>>> Apache, Pg, etc. across my home network for some time. I had no problem
>>> installing pg 8.2.1 on it. But now when I try to install 8.3.5,
>>> configure dies complaining that gcc can't build an executable. Looking
>>> at the log, it says crt1.o does not exist. I looked, and sure enough, it
>>> doesn't exist.

> I installed 8.2.1 from source,using gcc 3.2.2. I still have the
> config.log for that, dated Feb 3, 2007.

Hmm.  Well, something else to ask is whether you're sure you identified
the relevant error message in config.log.  In some cases errors like
that might be expected failures that configure can recover from.

            regards, tom lane