32 bit libraries are built incorrectly

Many of the 32-bit libraries that are installed on the 64bit Ubuntu Linux
(5.0.4) are built incorrectly. For example, /usr/X11R6/lib32/lib/libX11.so.6
refers to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/locale. It should refer to
/usr/X11R6/lib32/X11/locale. The reason is that there is a lib/common directory
inside that directory which contains *.so files. The current way libX11.so.6 is
built will cause the 64-bit version to load, thus causing many 32bit
applications to fail.

The libX11.so.6 is just one example. There are many libraries in /usr/lib32 and
/lib32 which refer to /usr/lib and /lib respectively. They should refer to
/usr/lib32 and /lib32 when looking for additional files so that they can refer
to the correct versions of the .so's.

Other examples are /usr/lib32/libglib-2.0.so.*, /usr/lib32/libdgk_imlib.so.*,
/usr/lib32/libgtk-1.2.so.*, /usr/lib32/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.*

In that last one, it attempts to find configuration files in /etc/gtk-2.0. So
both 64bit and 32bit versions of the library look for config files in
/etc/gtk-2.0. However the config files in /etc/gtk-2.0 lists the names of the
shared objects that libgdk_pixbuf needs to link with. Since there is only one
version of each config file, the 32-bit libgdk_pixbuf ends up linking with
64-bit ones. There should be an /etc/gtk-2.0-32 where the config files for the
32-bit libgdk_pixbuf needs to reside.

Yet another problem is /lib32/tls/libc-2.3.2.so which refers to /usr/lib/gconv,
when it should really refer to /usr/lib32/gconv.

There are many other 32bit libraries in this distribution that have similar
problems that prevent 32-bit programs from running on the 64bit OS.

This needs to be fixed to give a better user experience. Without it, I have to
jump through hoops to get 32 bit applications to run since some of the
(commercial) applications I use are only available in 32 bit mode.