Cynthia, check out this post by Janus Dubanik.

The problem with 8i on RH7.2 extends beyond the glibc. Unless the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL is set to 2.2.5, the jre won't even launch when you ./runInstall

What you might want to do is have nsadmin assume kernel 2.2.5 only the first time you install openacs on 8i running on RH7.2

Does anyone else know of a better workaround??