Oh, and now when I do "whereis libxml2.so.2" I get "libxml2.so: /usr/lib/libxml2.so.2". Don't know if that's important or not but I thought I'd mention it.

??? not sure ...

look on the cd for libsml and install it rpm -ivh libsml...

then retry up2date

Oops typo on my part. Sorry about that, I'm posting this on a different computer so I have to type all of this stuff from the other computer's screen. It should have read:

ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/libxml2mod.so: undefined symobol: xmlNewDocPI

When I get home I'll search for libxml2mod on the disk and then try to install it.

when I said the files are corrupt I meant that the actual files and not the library. Sure, you can find the library and reassociate but if the files are corrupt it is a waste of time. It's telling you it finds the lib but it gives errors trying to implement those files. If Up2date tries to update a file and fails you don't usually know until you reboot. You will have to weed out every bad file that was updated last and roll back to the previous version. Sounds like a lot of unnecessary work.

Blah Trying to install any of these packages gives me the same dependency messages.

So, is there a way to reinstall linux without wiping out everything I've downloaded and all of my email?

I've got to say, I read about how stable and safe linux is so I thought I'd try it and do my email and web browsing on it. But this is not an impressive start, having to reinstall and wipe everything out. It will be a shame if I have to lose all of my saved emails. I'll definitely have to rethink linux as anything permanent.

I do want to thank skog and beatupbilly for their assistance, thank you both.

And if anyone knows if I can reinstall without wiping out everything I'd appreciate your response and info.

did you put home on a seperate partition or make 1 partition? Im not sure what partition scheme FC uses by default???...

if
/ is a partition
and
/home is a partition

then you can reload at will all your user data is in /home/$USER ... email, email filters, download stuff, and everything else you did. If you didnt make a /home partition you can delete everything but /home and reinstall just dont format the / partition and it will reload all the system data and not mess up home. You know when you go through the FC install and it asks if you want to auto partition the drive say manual, and it will show the existing partitions click on them and edit give it a name "usually" / but make a check mark in the box "DONT FORMAT". Then go through the install as normal. When you first reboot add a user and it will ask that that user already has a home directory do you want to create a new one,. delete that one and make a new one, or use that one.

you dont have to reload it is just a matter of getting the libraries resetup ... sometimes that can be some work though

and i am pretty sure FC has a rescue install ... not sure what it does ive never used it. Boot off the cd and at the boot prompt, i think type rescue, but it says what to type for a rescue install on the boot screen, type "rescue --- or what it says" and hit enter and it might let you resetup the whole thing without reloading ... not sure never used it but maybe check it out....

Just to update:

I reinstalled FC2 but did not format the / partician and it seemed to work. Everything I've tried so far is working correctly again, including some customized toolbar things. Also, my email config and messages were all there afterwards. Thanks again to Skog for all the help and suggestions.

I've heard yum mentioned, is there a benefit to using it versus the up2date button on my toolbar? Is there an automated way to use it like up2date is automated?

Thanks

im kinda new to redhat so im not exactly sure but yes, i think it is only a command line util, but you could write a script and put it in cron to run weekly or something.

make a file as root called yum-updater
#!/bin/bash
#
# Something like this you will have to play with the settings to get it working the way you want "im not real sure never used yum
/usr/bin/yum --update -y

***Make sure it works properly before putting the file in /etc/cron.* becuase it will run every time its suppost to
then put the file in /etc/cron.weekly or cron.daily cron.monthly whenever you want it to run
cp yum-updater /etc/cron.weekly

yum will then update your computer every sunday at 4:22 AM