Is it safe to install a 686 glibc on an x86_64 system

[BillGradwohl]

I'm running on F11 x86_64 but have an older piece of software (CYCAS) that wants a glibc from a 32 bit environment.

The rpm for CYCAS lists a host of missing dependencies.
ld-linux.so.2 is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libc.so.6 is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libdl.so.2 is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libm.so.6 is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libX11.so.6 is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libXext.so.6 is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libXi.so.6 is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1) is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.2) is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.3) is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2) is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.3) is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libdl.so.2(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libdl.so.2(GLIBC_2.1) is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386
libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.0) is needed by cycas3_en-3.20-1.i386

My machine has all of these libraries except for ld-linux.so.2 which comes from a 586 or 686 glibc version.

Can I symlink the x86_64 bit version to ld-linux.so.2 and then force the rpm install? Will that work?

Or do I have to install the real 32 bit environment of all the listed libraries?

Or ... am I SOL and have to upgrade the application?

I wish they would have statically linked their application!

[Hlingler]

Originally Posted by BillGradwohl

Can I symlink the x86_64 bit version to ld-linux.so.2 and then force the rpm install? Will that work?

No.

Originally Posted by BillGradwohl

Or do I have to install the real 32 bit environment of all the listed libraries?

Yes.

V

[BillGradwohl]

Thanks - I was afraid of that.

Is there an easy way to get yum to grab all the dependencies and do the install?

[Hlingler]

Yes:

yum --nogpgcheck localinstall <insert-PATH-to-CYCAS-RPM-file>

V

[BillGradwohl]

Worked great!

Thank You very much.