Thanks Alexandre and Helen - this is what happened ...

1. Installed SuSE Linux 9.1 as a prototype server (self-ed)

2. Installed Apache2 + Subversion with its Berkeley DB backend
- svnadmin create (a few repositories) worked fine

3. Installed Firebird SS 1.5 (non-NPTL version)
- set LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 (as per page 11 of The Firebird Book)

4. svnadmin hotcopy fails with Berkeley DB_PRIVATE error
- that repository is broken

5. Frantic googling, whining on lists, bothering everyone who would
listen and downloading new versions of everything including SuSE 9.3

6. After absorbing a little of what penetrated my thick skull ...
- as root in a bash shell enter "unset LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5"
- svnadmin works fine again
- broken repository magically repairs itself

7. Un-installed Firebird
- removed LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 from etc/profile
- about to install the NPTL version of Firebird
- I'll let you know if it fails - assume success :)

Some of the above was obscured because I was/am having trouble at the
same time getting Apache to load mod_python and still keep Subversion
running. It is possible that next time I try mod_python it will work.

Anyway, thank you very much - one and all :)

I will post this in other lists which also helped.

Regards

Mike



Helen Borrie wrote:

> At 08:44 AM 9/08/2005 +1000, you wrote:
>
>>Can anyone tell me please if a Linux environment variable
>>LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 is needed for Firebird?
>>
>>It might be interfering with my Subversion repositories and need to be
>>changed. I don't want to spoil Firebird on the same machine. I'm running
>>SuSE 9.1 Pro installed out of the box. I'm a Linux newby.
>
>
> At the command line, run the command uname -r. This will return the
> version of the kernel that is in your SuSE distribution. If it is 2.4.1 or
> higher, then use the NPTL build of Firebird Superserver; if lower, use the
> regular build.
>
> If you want to continue using the regular build of Superserver, then follow
> the instructions on p.57 of the release notes.
>
> Note that this situation affects only Superserver, which spawns threads for
> each connection process and for some internal processes (garbage collection
> and sweeping). Under Classic, the xinetd daemon spawns a separate,
> self-contained Firebird server process for each connection.
>
> ./heLen
>
>
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>
>
>
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Visit http://firebird.sourceforge.net and click the Resources item
> on the main (top) menu. Try Knowledgebase and FAQ links !
>
> Also search the knowledgebases at http://www.ibphoenix.com
>
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
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>