symlinks are present, /usr/lib/libc.so point to new libs defined by 4.99.39,
similar for /lib files. I need only install base.tgz from 4.99.39 
release to examine the problem, in the case of firefox i used gdb to get 
the following interesting data:
casey234: {24} gdb firefox firefox-bin.core
GNU gdb 6.5
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain 
conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB.  Type "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "alpha--netbsd"..."/usr/pkg/bin/firefox": not 
in executable format: File format not recognized

Core was generated by `firefox-bin'.
Program terminated with signal 11, Segmentation fault.
#0  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()
(gdb)
'not in executable format'(?)
mel


> On Tue, Dec 04, 2007 at 07:19:15AM -0500, mel kravitz wrote:
> > rebuilt release 4.99.39 today, jemalloc.c 1.15, startkde dumps the 
> > following core files on startup and gdb on alpha does not give much data-
> > casey229: {13} cd core_dumps
> > casey229: {14} ls -l *
> > -rw-------  1 mel  users  3130096 Dec  4 06:24 artsshell.core
> > -rw-------  1 mel  users  1516768 Dec  4 06:23 dcop.core
> > -rw-------  1 mel  users  1756816 Dec  4 06:23 kde-config.core
> > -rw-------  1 mel  users  2493752 Dec  4 06:23 kdeinit.core
> > -rw-------  1 mel  users  2179232 Dec  4 06:23 ksmserver.core
> > -rw-------  1 mel  users  2469464 Dec  4 06:23 ksplash.core
> > casey229: {15} gdb -core ksmserver.core
> > GNU gdb 6.5
> > Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> > GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
> > welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain 
> > conditions.
> > Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
> > There is absolutely no warranty for GDB.  Type "show warranty" for details.
> > This GDB was configured as "alpha--netbsd".
> > Core was generated by `ksmserver'.
> > Program terminated with signal 11, Segmentation fault.
> > #0  0x0000000000000000 in ?? ()
> > moving userland back to 4.99.33 allows kde to start. Any suggestions 
> > welcome-
> > mel
>
> Are you sure the synlinks under /usr/lib and /lib are correct? There is a problem
> with library load order in the dynamic linker. jemalloc 1.15 works around it for
> x86; I'm working on a real solution. Hopefully it's the cause of this problem.
>
> Thanks,
> Andrew