On Tuesday 09 April 2002 18:59, you wrote: > Acer MB (M25D, I think). After a week or so, and without being certain > of the exact sequence of events leading up to this, the RPM database > seems to have become corrupted. > > 'rpm -q --all' lists 537 packages, ending with an old > 'kernel-2.4.3-20mdk', then gets a SEGV and core dumps. Notably, I had > been trying to 'rpm -e' this package at about the same time that I > first noticed the corruption. There were more than 537 packages > installed, as well. > > 'rpm --rebuilddb' cranks away for a while, then also gets a SEGV > and core dumps, leaving about 18 MB of stuff behind in > /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.<pid> > > Both errors are repeatable. It's possible that the sequence of > events leading up to this was something like: > > - Upgrade to 8.2 > - Install and remove various additional packages (notably, removing > some old packages from 8.1 and 8.2 Cookers). > - At some point, fill up the partition containing /var/lib, without > noticing it. > - Attempt to rpm -e kernel-2.4.3-20mdk and kernel-source-2.4.3-20mdk. > - Notice RPM DB corruption. > > However, I'm not particularly confident in stating this was the > actual sequence of events. > > Is this known behavior? Do I have any options other than a clean > re-install of 8.2? Searching through old archives of the expert list, I > came across a pointer to Pascal Bourguignon's howto on rebuilding the > DB: > > http://hermes.afaa.asso.fr/users/pascal/linux/rpm-rebuilddb > > I'm willing to give this a try if there's a good chance of success, > though I'd first like to hear if anyone else has dealt successfully > with this problem.
I have had this happen in the past, and to avoid it in the future I do regular backups of /var/lib/rpm What I did to fix the problem was the following (found thru lots of trial and error) 1 - backup /var/lib/rpm --- just to be safe 2 - run 'rpm -qa | sort | less ' -- take a look at the output and see if there were any "funky" named packages -- packages named with all sorts of odd symbols 3 - run kpackage to delete the "funky" packages as you will not be able to do it from the command line 4 - rpm --rebuilddb and all was ok. Depending on what you installed before or after your 8.2 upgrade, it might just be easier to do a clean install. -- Alex http://www.qsl.net/kc2ivl Linux 2.4.18 #5 Sat Mar 9 21:44:22 EST 2002 i686 8:50pm up 1 day, 3:53, 2 users, load average: 0.05, 0.06, 0.01
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