[throwaway09223]

> "The 32-bit Oracle 8i database will no longer run on modern Linux."

Yes it will.

> "I forget the exact errors, but the software is simply too old."

You're running into compatibility issues with newer libraries. Libraries do change in incompatible ways -- but the solution is simply to install the older library.

You absolutely can run 32-bit Oracle 8i on a modern kernel. The steps to do this in a nutshell (omitting a few details) are:

1) Grab a linux userland which 8i was built for (eg: RedHat7) and extract it somewhere. Use docker, create a chroot, whatever you like.

2) Enter the container/chroot and install 8i. It'll work fine, because you'll be linking the correct library versions and those libraries will still work even on a modern kernel due to the aforementioned kernel compatibility guarantees.