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Debian
tracker.debian.org › pkg › glibc
glibc - Debian Package Tracker
∙ ∙ Autopkgtest for ... s390x: Pass ♻ · ∙ ∙ Autopkgtest for yoshimi/2.3.6.2-1: s390x: Pass ♻ ... [2026-05-03] Accepted glibc 2.41-12+deb13u3 (source) into proposed-updates (Debian FTP Masters) (signed by: Aurelien Jarno)...
GNU Project's implementation of the C standard library
The GNU C Library, commonly known as glibc, is the GNU Project implementation of the C standard library. It provides a wrapper around the system calls of the Linux kernel and other … Wikipedia
Factsheet
GNU C Library
Original author Roland McGrath
Developers GNU Project, most contributions by Ulrich Drepper
Factsheet
GNU C Library
Original author Roland McGrath
Developers GNU Project, most contributions by Ulrich Drepper
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Launchpad
answers.launchpad.net › debian › bookworm › +source › glibc
glibc package : Debian - Bookworm (12) - Launchpad Answers
September 6, 2025 - All versions of glibc source in Debian · Release · The package versions that were published when the distribution release was made. glibc 2.36-9+deb12u13 (main) glibc 2.36-9+deb12u12 (main) glibc 2.36-9+deb12u10 (main) glibc 2.36-8 (main) ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/debian › why won't glibc be maintained also on older versions of debain ?
r/debian on Reddit: Why won't glibc be maintained also on older versions of Debain ?
February 28, 2024 -

I've updated to Debian 12 and found out that programs that I compile won't work on Debian 11, because the Glibc version on Debian 11 lag behind.
Is it intentional that in older versions of Debian the glibc isn't get updated ?
Glibc is a cruical part for compatability, and the fact that it is only backwards compatible means that the moment a developer update to the latest version of linux and compile its binaries, his program become obsolete for older versions of debian.

Top answer
1 of 3
95

I was able to install libc6 2.17 in Debian Wheezy by editing the recommendations in perror's answer:

IMPORTANT

You need to exit out of your display manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+F1. Then you can stop x (slim) with sudo /etc/init.d/slim stop

(replace slim with mdm or lightdm or whatever)

Add the following line to the file /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian experimental main

Should be changed to:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid main

Then follow the rest of perror's post:

Update your package database:

apt-get update

Install the glibc package:

apt-get -t sid install libc6-amd64 libc6-dev libc6-dbg

IMPORTANT

After updating libc6, restart the computer, and you should comment out or remove the sid source you just added (deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid main), or else you risk upgrading your whole distro to sid.

2 of 3
29

Your script contains errors as well, for example if you have dos2unix installed your install works but if you don't like I did then it will fail with dependency issues.

I found this by accident as I was making a script file of this to give to my friend who is new to Linux and because I made the scripts on windows I directed him to install it, at the time I did not have dos2unix installed thus I got errors.

here is a copy of the script I made for your solution but have dos2unix installed.

#!/bin/sh
echo "deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get -t sid install libc6 libc6-dev libc6-dbg
echo "Please remember to hash out sid main from your sources list. /etc/apt/sources.list"

this script has been tested on 3 machines with no errors.

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Launchpad
launchpad.net › debian › bookworm › +source › glibc
glibc package : Debian - Bookworm (12) - Launchpad
All versions of glibc source in Debian · Release · The package versions that were published when the distribution release was made. glibc 2.36-9+deb12u13 (main) glibc 2.36-9+deb12u12 (main) glibc 2.36-8 (main) View changelog · Current version: ...
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Debian
packages.debian.org › src:glibc
I Challenge Thee
I Challenge Thee · AI scrapers break the web, to use this page you'll need JavaScript enabled
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Launchpad
blueprints.launchpad.net › debian › bookworm › +source › glibc
glibc package : Debian - Bookworm (12) - Blueprints
March 15, 2025 - All versions of glibc source in Debian · Release · The package versions that were published when the distribution release was made. glibc 2.36-9+deb12u13 (main) glibc 2.36-9+deb12u12 (main) glibc 2.36-9+deb12u10 (main) glibc 2.36-8 (main) ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/debian › debian 12 - apt "glibc_2.38 not found" issue after backup restore
r/debian on Reddit: Debian 12 - APT "GLIBC_2.38 not found" issue after backup restore
December 5, 2024 -

I have a Debian 12 install running on a laptop which has been great. I use BackInTime to take nightly backups of my OS in the event that the system becomes unstable or will not boot. Well that happened. I had a plasma issue occur and the machine failed to boot. So I restored one of my daily backups. Beautiful. Everything looks fine again. Until I try to upgrade with APT. The update looks fine on the surface at first. The apt update command finds a few packages that need to be updated. Nothing that appears to be related to GLIBC though.

Chrome is one of the updates as well as girl 1.2. If I perform the update, it processes as expected. However, if I run apt update or any other command after that, I receive the "GLIBC_2.38 not found error from anything I try to launch. Can anyone explain to me why this is happening?

Here are images of the apt update that processes successfully prior to the issue occurring.

And before anyone asks, no im not using Kali. Its vanilla Debian 12. That's just the user.Also a shot of APT sources. they are the standard sources.

Checking the gLibc version prior to the update shows that 2.36 is the current version

Find elsewhere
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GitHub
github.com › helix-editor › helix › issues › 12397
helix-25.01-x86_64 binaries fail on Debian 12 due to glibc version · Issue #12397 · helix-editor/helix
January 4, 2025 - Summary Helix 25.01 binaries fail on Debian 12: $ hx /tmp/.mount_hxOwWYNh/usr/bin/hx: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.38' not found (required by /tmp/.mount_hxOwWYNh/usr/bin/h...
Author   helix-editor
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Repology
repology.org › project › glibc › versions
glibc package versions - Repology
List of package versions for project glibc in all repositories
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Debian
packages.debian.org › source › bookworm › glibc
Debian -- Details of source package glibc in bookworm
adep: g++-12-multilib [amd64 i386 kfreebsd-amd64 mips mips64 mips64el mips64r6 mips64r6el mipsel mipsn32 mipsn32el mipsn32r6 mipsn32r6el mipsr6 mipsr6el powerpc ppc64 s390x sparc sparc64 x32]
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Debian
packages.debian.org › glibc
Debian -- Package Search Results -- glibc
trixie (stable) (devel): GNU C Library: sources 2.41-12+deb13u1: all
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Debian
packages.debian.org › source › bullseye › glibc
Debian -- Details of source package glibc in bullseye
GD Graphics Library (development version) idep: perl · Larry Wall's Practical Extraction and Report Language · idep: po-debconf (>= 1.0) tool for managing templates file translations with gettext · Debian Package Source Repository (VCS: Git) https://salsa.debian.org/glibc-team/glibc.git ·
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/debian › how do i get a newer version of glibc? (2.38 or above?)
r/debian on Reddit: How do i get a newer version of glibc? (2.38 or above?)
June 9, 2024 -

Basically im trying to run a game but it requires at least glibc 2.38 but it seems debian only offers 2.36 at the moment. Any way i can get a newer vesion of it?

EDIT: ended up just downloading the windows version of the game and running it with wine, im an idiot and thought i was having a problem with the sound when i first downloaded, that's why i tried the linux binary, but when i ran it with wine again i found out that the game came muted by default and that i had to press + to get the volume up

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Debian
ftp.debian.org › debian › pool › main › g › glibc
Index of /debian/pool/main/g/glibc
Index of /debian/pool/main/g/glibc · Apache Server at ftp.debian.org Port 80
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Debian
sources.debian.org › src › glibc
Package: glibc | Debian Sources
sources / glibc · 2.43-2 (main) [experimental] 2.42-16 (main) [forky, sid] 2.42-15 (main) [forky, sid] 2.42-14 (main) [forky, sid] 2.42-13 (main) [forky, sid] 2.42-12 (main) [forky, sid] 2.42-11 (main) [sid] 2.42-10 (main) [forky, sid] 2.41-12+deb13u3 (main) [trixie, forky, sid, trixie-proposed-updates] 2.41-11 (main) [trixie] 2.40-5 (main) [trixie] 2.36-9+deb12u14 (main) [bookworm, bookworm-proposed-updates] 2.36-9+deb12u10 (main) [bookworm-backports] 2.36-9+deb12u8 (main) [bookworm-backports] 2.36-8 (main) [bookworm] 2.31-13+deb11u11 (main) [bullseye] 2.31-13+deb11u6 (main) [bullseye, bulls