Re: need help fixing yast2 problem on 9.3

__/ [ Brian Hall ] on Tuesday 28 February 2006 02:41 \__

On 2006-02-27, Brian Hall wrote:
Reinstallation isn't in option in my case. I either have to figure out how
to fix yast, or do without and install RPMs manually at the command line.

I do have a little more information. When I do a search, it can find only
already-installed packages. If I search for a package provided by 9.3 but
not installed, nothing is found. For example, a search for "emacs" comes
up emtpy. Looks to me like the part of the yast2 config that goes to an
external online repository is broken.

The online update does appear to be set to a valid server, in that it does
download the patch information, instead of hanging or aborting.

OK, I figured out and fixed the problem.

Problem was the yast package database was either fried or missing. There
are files in /var/adm/YaST, but yast wasn't happy with them. I only figured
this out by doing "yast2 repair", which apparently you aren't supposed to
do from a running system, but oh well. Anyway, the repair process would
complain about the package DB being missing, and try to rebuild it, which
would appearently succeed, but running it again would fail with the same
problem.

So, having another server I hadn't configured yet, I simply scp'ed the
entire contents of /var/adm/YaST over to the server where I was having the
problem.

Somewhat unsatifying in that I have no idea what exactly the problem
was, but at least this fixed it...

On rare occasions, the same 'quick and dirty' solution can be used for KDE
applications that have gone 'tits-up'. It is somewhat re-assuring that all
settings are centralised so neatly as directories with files, so you can
merely graft (drag-and-drop) entire directories.

I should point out, however, that this is better (especially safer) done as
restoration from backup, rather than from one machine to another, i.e. one
installation base to another. Back up regularly just in case things go
morbid and you want to revert to an old state, even if only one small
component is involved:

nice scp -r ~/.[0-z]* ~/* you@mirror_machine:/home/you/mutual_backup/

This saved me from restoration efforts a few times, e.g. .ispell_english
being emptied or mail folders mistakenly erased.
.

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