Newbie help for Oracle client installation on Linux

Dear all,

I have been trying to install Oracle 8i Client tools (SQL*Plus etc) but right at the start I am getting the following error:

[yousaf_at_tom Disk1]$ ./runInstaller

Initializing Java Virtual Machine from
../stage/Components/oracle.swd.jre/1.1.8/1/DataFiles/Expanded/linux/
[yousaf_at_tom Disk1]$

/home/yousaf/tmp/Disk1/stage/Components/oracle.swd.jre/1.1.8/1/DataFiles/Expanded/linux, version GLIBC_2.0 not defined in file libc.so.6 with link time reference (libzip.so)
Unable to initialize threads: cannot find class java/lang/Thread Could not create Java VM

Which java environment is it trying to use? looks like its trying to use its own jre. Also whats with the GLIBC error? I got glibc 2.3.2, do I need to specify that in an installation script?

Could anyone help me through this installation?

-- 
Yousaf
Linux version 2.4.20-8  
gcc version 3.2.2
Red Hat 9