glibc - GLIBC_2.27 not found Ubuntu 16.04

Question

One of the software I want to run needs GLIBC_2.27, and all I see is this error on the console:

/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version 'GLIBC_2.27" not found

When I run this command ldd --version I get this output:

ldd(Ubuntu GLIBC 2.23-0ubuntu11) 2.23

How can I update GLIBC to 2.27 and get rid of the above error?

Answer 1

How can I update GLIBC to 2.27 and get rid of the above error?

While it's possible to do, there are some disadvantages:

1. If you make any mistake in the process, you will render the system un-bootable. Better have recovery media ready and know how to use it to manually mount your root filesystem and repair it.
2. While GLIBC is highly backward compatible, existing programs that depend on undefined behavior may break.

Your best bet is to run this new program in a chroot environment or in a docker container.

Your next best bet is to install GLIBC-2.27 in parallel with system GLIBC, as described in e.g. this answer.

If you do decide to update the system GLIBC to the new version, the least error-prone way to do so is to download a new package, boot the system from recovery media, mount root filesystem on e.g. /mnt, and unpack the new version on top of it.