Unlinked libc.so.6 library accidenatally. How to recover the system ?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Issue

  • Most commands are not working and the following error message is seen:
error while loading shared libraries: libc.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
  • The library libc.so.6 appears to have been unlinked.
unlink libc.so.6

Resolution

  • The links and permissions for libc.so.6 should be similar to the following example:
# ll /lib/libc.so.6 ; ll /lib64/libc.so.6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Sep 28 05:35 /lib/libc.so.6 -> libc-2.5.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Sep 28 05:34 /lib64/libc.so.6 -> libc-2.5.so

  • If the links appear correct, then the /lib/libc.so.6 and /lib64/libc.so.6 files may need to be copied for a known working system of the same major release version.

  • If the system is not functioning and is not stable enough to use, then rescue mode can be used to verify and perform the listed steps available at: Booting into Rescue Mode

Root Cause

The libc.so.6 library was unlinked or not properly linked which caused numerous application errors.

  • Component
  • rpm

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