Force reinstallation of packages Was: Root-filesystem remounts as read-only during 5.2 upgrade (system completely shoot)
 

WARNING! Due to my background, I don't often read man pages like I used
to. So there may be some inaccuracies or ambiguities below.

On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 11:58 +0200, Bernhard Gschaider wrote:
> <snip>

> Sorry. Stupid question again: and if I find inconsistencies, then the

Keep in mind that *some* inconsistencies are expected. Local config
files being one good example. You must look at the codes displayed in
the output, and possibly the files, to be sure it is really a
discrepancy.

> only way to force rpm to correct them yould be something like
>
> yum remove offendingPackage
> yum install offendingPackage
>
> or the equivalent rpm-commands?

Not the only way, but probably the safest. However, that may try to also
remove some dependencies, depending on the package you're trying to
remove.

I seem to recall a "force" parameter that is available for rpm and yum.
Although normally disparaged, this is a perfect situation for its use.

>
> Currently the machine behaves quite strange:
> - Boots OK
> - Lets users log in and most applications work
> - Firefox works only for root
> - yumex hangs at starting

Depending on your time-frame, this may be a symptom of the load on the
servers you access. Yesterday A.M. I saw *BIG* delays downloading the
xml(?) files. But I use yum CLI, so I see the blood-n-guts on the
screen. <BIAS> GUIs suck... in general</BIAS>

> - "man rpm" says XXX WARNING: old character encoding and/or character set
>
> All this leads me to the conclusion that there are only some selected
> packages corrupt (and I don't want to reinstall the machine). Would
> Installing/Repairing from DVD help?

Maybe. But some of the rpms might be on your system from the update
activities. Do and updatedb and then a locate .rpm. You may see some
in /var/cache/yum. Subdirs under it might have what you need.

>
> Bernhard
> <snip>

HTH
--
Bill

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Force reinstallation of packages Was: Root-filesystem remounts as read-only during 5.2 upgrade (system completely shoot)
 

>>>>> On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:51:35 -0400
>>>>> "WLM" == William L Maltby <CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com> wrote:

WLM> WARNING! Due to my background, I don't often read man pages
WLM> like I used to. So there may be some inaccuracies or
WLM> ambiguities below.

WLM> On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 11:58 +0200, Bernhard Gschaider wrote:
>> <snip>

>> Sorry. Stupid question again: and if I find inconsistencies,
>> then the

WLM> Keep in mind that *some* inconsistencies are expected. Local
WLM> config files being one good example. You must look at the
WLM> codes displayed in the output, and possibly the files, to be
WLM> sure it is really a discrepancy.

I know. I compared with the verify-output from a working machine. For
my theory ("there are different rpm-packages on the disk than in the
rpm-database") to be right there should be a large amounts of files
with wrong MD5-sums. And there is only a handful for which this is the
case (and they seem mostly harmless)

>> only way to force rpm to correct them yould be something like
>>
>> yum remove offendingPackage yum install offendingPackage
>>
>> or the equivalent rpm-commands?

WLM> Not the only way, but probably the safest. However, that may
WLM> try to also remove some dependencies, depending on the
WLM> package you're trying to remove.

Yep. That's what I was afraid of

WLM> I seem to recall a "force" parameter that is available for
WLM> rpm and yum. Although normally disparaged, this is a perfect
WLM> situation for its use.

It exists in RPM, but in yum it is notoriously absent

>> Currently the machine behaves quite strange: - Boots OK - Lets
>> users log in and most applications work - Firefox works only
>> for root - yumex hangs at starting

WLM> Depending on your time-frame, this may be a symptom of the
WLM> load on the servers you access. Yesterday A.M. I saw *BIG*
WLM> delays downloading the xml(?) files. But I use yum CLI, so I
WLM> see the blood-n-guts on the screen. <BIAS> GUIs suck... in
WLM> general</BIAS>

yum works. The problem according to an "strace yum" seems to be that
it is poll-ing on something, but I don't know on what, because I don't
get the arguments to that call, because it never finishes (last line
just says "poll("

>> - "man rpm" says XXX WARNING: old character encoding and/or
>> character set
>>
>> All this leads me to the conclusion that there are only some
>> selected packages corrupt (and I don't want to reinstall the
>> machine). Would Installing/Repairing from DVD help?

WLM> Maybe. But some of the rpms might be on your system from the
WLM> update activities. Do and updatedb and then a locate
WLM> .rpm. You may see some in /var/cache/yum. Subdirs under it
WLM> might have what you need.

I'll try that. If it doesn't help I'll have to scratch the machine and
install anew.

Thanks
Bernhard
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Force reinstallation of packages Was: Root-filesystem remounts as read-only during 5.2 upgrade (system completely shoot)
 

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008, Bernhard Gschaider wrote:


On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:53:16 +0200
"BG" == Bernhard Gschaider <bgschaid_lists@ice-sf.at> wrote:



On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:39:22 -0400
"WLM" == William L Maltby <CentOS4Bill@triad.rr.com> wrote:


WLM> On Wed, 2008-06-25 at 20:27 +0200, Bernhard Gschaider wrote:
>>> <snip>

>>> Is there a way to say: "Hey RPM, have a look whether really
>>> the files in your database are on the disk)" ?

WLM> Use rpm's verify option. I forget the exact syntax: I'm sorry
WLM> to have to sentence you to the rpm manpage dungeon. :-(

Sorry. Stupid question again: and if I find inconsistencies, then the
only way to force rpm to correct them yould be something like

yum remove offendingPackage
yum install offendingPackage

or the equivalent rpm-commands?


With apt-rpm you have the possibility to replace a package inline from a
repository, you can do this with:


apt-get install --reinstall <package-name>

This is useful if you damaged files that belonged to an installed RPM
package without having to uninstall all the packages that depend on it as
well.


Under the hood it is the same as:

rpm -Uhv --replacefiles --replacepkgs <file-name>

The --reinstall feature is also useful when during CentOS QA packages are
being updated with the exact same version-release. Or when you want to
convert a RHEL into a CentOS or the other way around.


--
-- dag wieers, dag@centos.org, http://dag.wieers.com/ --
[Any errors in spelling, tact or fact are transmission errors]
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