Comment 4 for bug 192239

upstream has this commented at http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2008-08/msg00149.html. It can be summarised as:

"naruto canada" <address@hidden> wrote:
> On 8/19/08, Jim Meyering <address@hidden> wrote:
>> "naruto canada" <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> Starting from coreutils-6.3.tar.bz2 upward, when compiled against
>>> glibc-2.5.1,
>>> "rm" requires /proc mounted else this error "cannot remove `...':
>>> Function not implemented" is triggered.
>>
>> I reworked remove.c to use the then-new *at functions (openat, statat,
>> etc.) and when those kernel functions are not available, the code
>> falls back on using /proc-based emulation, when possible.
>> There's a still older approach (lib/save-cwd.c), which is what
>> earlier versions of coreutils use.
>>
>> If you're stuck using glibc-2.5.x, can you stick with
>> the older version of coreutils, too?
>
> That's what I did.
>
> How about newer glibc-- 2.6 upwards? I've not tried them yet.

With a new enough kernel (including openat et al syscalls),
it should work with any glibc version that provides the
wrappers and declarations. I don't remember off hand which
was the first.