Oracle 8i is not compile/link time compatible with glibc 2.2. It requires the glibc 2.1 compatibility SDK, i386-glibc-2.1-linux.tar.gz, to install under systems based on glibc 2.2, like RedHat 7.0. The following steps work for me 1. Make gcc, cc and ld from the glibc 2.1 SDK available for the Oracle installer: cd / tar xfz ..../i386-glibc-2.1-linux.tar.gz 2. Hide gcc, cc and ld under /usr/bin so that the Oracle installer won't pick it up by accident with # gcc ... # cc ... # ld ... Do cd /usr/bin mkdir saved mv gcc cc ld saved ln -s /usr/i386-glibc-2.1-linux/bin/i386-glibc21-linux-gcc gcc ln -s gcc cc ln -s /usr/i386-glibc-2.1-linux/bin/i386-glibc21-linux-ld ld 3. Hide libc.so, libdl.so, libm.so and libpthread.so under /usr/lib so that the Oracle installer won't pick it up by accident # gcc -L/usr/lib ... since -L/usr/lib tells gcc to search /usr/lib first. Neither -L/usr/lib nor -L/lib are needed under Linux. Do cd /usr/lib mkdir saved mv libc.so libdl.so libm.so libpthread.so saved mv libc.a libdl.a libm.a libpthread.a saved 4. Install Oracle 8i: ./runInstaller 5. Restore /usr/bin: cd /usr/bin rm -f gcc cc ld cd /usr/bin/saved mv * .. cd .. rm -rf saved 6. Restore /usr/lib: cd /usr/lib/saved mv * .. cd .. rm -rf saved Comments on Oracle installation: 1. -L/lib and -L/usr/lib should be removed for Linux. They are not necessary under Linux and may cause problems for the glibc 2.1 SDK. 2. /lib:/usr/lib should be removed from -Wl,-rpath for Linux. They are not necessary under Linux and may cause problems for the glibc 2.1 SDK.