As a reminder to myself, the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL should be set as:
# Set the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL environment variable only for Red Hat 9,
# RHEL AS 3, and RHEL AS 4 !!
# Use the "Linuxthreads with floating stacks" implementation instead of NPTL:
export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.1 # for RH 9 and RHEL AS 3
export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.19 # for RHEL AS 4
Honestly, I don’t know why we have to set differently between RH9 & RHEL AS 3 vs RHEL AS 4. I’ll do it anyway.

As I read from the Red Hat Release Notes, it says:
export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.19 — Linuxthreads with floating stacks
export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 — Linuxthreads without floating stacks

Once we set the environment, we can check which thread library that active, we can use ‘getconf GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION’ command as follow:
bash-3.00$ unset LD_ASSUME_KERNEL
bash-3.00$ getconf GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION
NPTL 2.3.4
bash-3.00$ export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.1
bash-3.00$ getconf GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION
linuxthreads-0.10
bash-3.00$ export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.19
bash-3.00$ getconf GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION
linuxthreads-0.10
bash-3.00$ export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.5.2
bash-3.00$ getconf GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION
NPTL 2.3.4
bash-3.00$ unset LD_ASSUME_KERNEL
bash-3.00$ getconf GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION
NPTL 2.3.4

Information about NPTL can be found in wikipedia.

I’ve to confess that I don’t have enough experience in Java Programming nor enough time to study. And it’s completely different beast compare to my other certifications (RHCE and OCP DBA) that merely IT infrastructure exams.

What I’ve done to get the certification is:
1. Learn about the SCJP it self. I print the page, and nail it to my office wall. So I can read the it whenever I’m in office.
2. Browse Amazon, try to find the best SCJP book available. Based on its reviews, I decided to buy Katherine Sierra SCJP Book. Because, I reside in The Netherlands, I ordered the book via bol.com, and received the book within 3 days.
3. Followed the book suggestion, I photo-copied the review part of each chapter. I read this when I’m on the tram on the way to and from office. I started to do this since October 2008.
4. On January 2009, I read the book completely. Finally!
5. But, my confident level still didn’t increase. Until, there’s information in the sun website that if we buy the voucher before June 2008, we’ll have a free retake exam. This boost my guts and also my learn.
6. I bought the Voucher from Sun NL. It cost 235 EUR + VAT.
7. I go to Prometric website, to register the exam. I chose the nearest exam location, which is 500 meter away from my office.
8. A day before the exam, I took a good night sleep. In the morning, I felt my self fresh, and went to exam location.
9. It’s a long exam, 3.5 hours! I used this full long time to do the exam 9 passes, until I ran out of time. After click finish, it didn’t show my result on the computer screen. It’s different with my OCP, that show the result as soon as you click finish. I went to the admin, and she congratulated me that I passed the exam. I still couldn’t believe it! Alhamdulillah!

Now, since I’ve passed the exam. I feel lighter, seems that the whole burden that I’d carried over years has gone. I need to decide for my next goal. I would like to get back to academic things, but I still don’t know how to do it, any idea?