Re: help - I installed rpm4.0.6 and now nothing works!

On 3 Jan 2006, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.misc, in article
<1136298381.615714.120270@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, mcgillion wrote:

>1. revert back to the previous version of RPM (because I have not yet
>converted the db)

That will probably be interesting - I'm not sure you can use a broken
version of rpm to install anything. (--nodeps --oldpackage _might_ work,
but you may be forced to use the backup tapes otherwise).

>2. continue with the new version of RPM (4.0-6x or later)

installing the newer db3 and popt packages - might work after a rebuild,
but I wouldn't guarantee it.

>3. install a newer version of RH (7/8/9 or whatever).

Well, that could get you into a _marginally_ supported version (RH 7.0,
7.1, 7.2, and 8.0 are not supported. RH 7.3 and 9 have very limited
support at download.fedoralegacy.org), but like 6.2 they are end-of-life
and can't be recommended for new installs.

>Luckily I have another RH6.2 machine running the same kernel (2.2.18)
>with RPM version rpm-3.0.4-0.48. I am assuming (not proven) that my
>broken machine had the RPM version - everything else is the same.

Interesting - 2.2.18 was never a RH6.2 kernel. Out-of-box, it was
2.2.14-5.0, and then updated to 2.2.16-3, then 2.2.17-14, 2.2.19-6.2.1,
2.2.19-6.2.16, 2.2.22-6.2.2, 2.2.22-6.2.3, to the last update of
2.2.24-6.2.3 dated Mar 19 18:17 2003.

>I have read all the responses and I have googled around redhat and
>elsewhere and I think the only problem with going back to an earlier
>version of RPM is that I can get seg faults due to the db version
>issues (https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2001-016.html). However I
>have not upgraded the db version so I believe that I *could* escape
>this problem.

That's a mighty big 'if'. While you can bypass the database using the
--nodeps option, I still don't know if things would work if you also
hadn't updated popt. Your only options may be to try to use your
backup tapes to restore, or chuck it all and install a modern distribution.
As for "the only problem" - you are also several years behind on security
updates - these were really released for a reason. If the boxes are not
exposed to a potentially hostile environment (our ancient 'gemini' is
unreachable beyond the room it is located in), you might be OK, but I
wouldn't recommend it.

>If however I cannot go back (because I get seg faults etc) then I will
>move forward to RPM 4.0-6x or even 4.0.2. I can get these versions at
>the following locations:
>
>4.0.2
>http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/rpm.org/rpm/dist/rpm-4.0.x/rpm-4.0.2-7x.i386.html

Highly unlikely. The -7x refers to the distribution version, and 7.x was not
compatible with 6.x. A section on RHSA-2001:016-03 says that rpm-4.0.2-7x
was the version for RH7.0, which was a real mess with a bogus Glibc2 and
screwed compiler. You DON'T want to go there.

>4.0-6x
>http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/rpm.org/rpm/dist/rpm-4.0.x/rpm-4.0-6x.i386.html

More likely, but wasn't built for Red Hat 6.2.

>Would you reommend a version that I should use with RH6.2?

-rw-rw-r-- 2 ftp ftp 1283762 Mar 21 2001 rpm-4.0.2-6x.i386.rpm
-rw-rw-r-- 2 ftp ftp 63876 Mar 21 2001 rpm-build-4.0.2-6x.i386.rpm
-rw-rw-r-- 2 ftp ftp 313646 Mar 21 2001 rpm-devel-4.0.2-6x.i386.rpm
-rw-rw-r-- 2 ftp ftp 32303 Mar 21 2001 rpm-python-4.0.2-6x.i386.rpm

Those were the versions from Red Hat. The listings were from the
updates.redhat.com server in 2003.

>If all this fails (quite possible form my reading) then I will just give
>up and install a later version of RH - I have versions 7 and 8 and 9 lying
>around here somewhere!

If you're not going with a commercial version (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4,
or a low-cost/GPL clone), the free Fedora Core (version 4 is current, 5 is
in beta) is much more desirable.

Old guy
.

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