I hope someone can help, I just received my 2018 tex live DVD and installed it on my Linux system (Red Hat, v6.10, glibc 2.12). Installation log had the
following message:
kpsewhich: /lib64/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.14' not found (required by kpsewhich)
Could not determine directory of tlmgr executable, maybe shared library woes?
After installation I tried running latex on an existing *.tex file, and it also failed because pdflatex also needs glibc 2.14.
I found on the tug.org website, Tex Live 2018 – bugs and updates page the
following:
"The binaries for most platforms are built on newer systems than in the past; for example, the x86_64-linux binaries now require glibc 2.14. This is because the core libraries ICU and poppler now require C++11, and it is not feasible to compile with that on the older systems we have used in the past."
Is there any recourse here? I've been a member of TUG for well over 10 years and have paid the membership in order to support the use of Tex and friends. I do not have the option of upgrading the OS since this is a work computer that I use LaTeX on. Has any run into this and found a workaround?
Thanks for any information, otherwise I guess my new 2018 DVD is just a coaster :(.
-Glenn
Best Answer
I have compiled the subset of binaries which do not require icu&poppler on an older x86_64-linux. This omits luatex, xetex, dvisvgm, upmendex, bibtexu.
See https://tug.org/texlive/custom-bin.html for links and more details.
Installation and updates are not perfect (errors relating to context -- I suggest omitting that collection at install time), but the result was usable for me.
Hope it's useful.