DB2, ITDS on Linux issues...

If you ever tried installing any IBM products on a linux distribution you already know that you need some black magick to do it...

Configuring it on the supported platform is a little bit easier but still not as it should be!


Most of the problems come from the use of InstallShield installer on all platforms (instead only on windblows where it actually works)...

Installshield prerequisites are almost nondocumented (except for compat-libstdc++-33.i386 or libstdc++5 on debian-based distros). Other than that you'll also need:libXp6, libxtst, xclock (for some basic X libs)... For centos I also needed compat-libstdc++-296 and pdksh (uninstall ksh and download pdksh from Internet since it's not part of the distribution)


Now you can at least install the product! But if it's WebSphere you should also add libgtk2.0-0 or your profile management tool dies...


If you are installing DB2 v9 on Ubuntu make sure you:

1. change /bin/sh as a link from /bin/dash to /bin/bash (or scripts will fail silently)

2. change /etc/pam.d/common-password from

password [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so obscure sha512
to
password [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so obscure md5

or DB2 will not be able to authenitace remote users (since their encrypted password will be to big!)



IBM please document your linux stuff and stop using InstallShield - it's simply broken!