Dear Prof O,
The alternative is to update your libc - but that is an option that I would not recommend.
Wise words. But too late to save me: I have broken my kernel.
Anyway: one solution for the binary distribution is to find an old system and compile on that. This system here is pretty old. When I get it up and running again I sill try to compile the linux version from sources. Because this process may produce a binary distribution that almost always works, I think it will be worth the trouble.
Yours, Kevan