I downloaded FC10 and have a fresh ("typical") install in VMware.
The add/remove software fails to work with errors. I ran yum directly and it failed with python errors. So, I decided to download FC9 Live for x86 and run add/remove software from the Live CD without installing and got the same errors there as well. Not sure what the deal but out-of-the-box yum isn't working. Any clues?
Does VMware have any part to play in this?
I've also tried running 'yum clean' before running 'yum list' etc with same errors.
Thanks in advance for any pointers.

here are my tests and errors:

[root@localhost tmp]#
[root@localhost tmp]# ping yahoo.com
PING yahoo.com (206.190.60.37) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from w2.rc.vip.re4.yahoo.com (206.190.60.37): icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=39.4 ms
64 bytes from w2.rc.vip.re4.yahoo.com (206.190.60.37): icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=36.8 ms
^C
--- yahoo.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1532ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 36.851/38.169/39.487/1.318 ms
[root@localhost tmp]# uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.25-14.fc9.i686 #1 SMP Thu May 1 06:28:41 EDT 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

[root@localhost ~]# yum repolist
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
repo id repo name status
fedora Fedora 9 - i386 enabled
updates Fedora 9 - i386 - Updates enabled
[root@localhost ~]# yum check-update
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 29, in <module>
yummain.user_main(sys.argv[1:], exit_code=True)
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 241, in user_main
errcode = main(args)
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 116, in main
result, resultmsgs = base.doCommands()
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 307, in doCommands
self._getTs()
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 98, in _getTs
self._getTsInfo()
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 104, in _getTsInfo
self._tsInfo.setDatabases(self.rpmdb, self.pkgSack)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 576, in <lambda>
pkgSack = property(fget=lambda self: self._getSacks(),
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 419, in _getSacks
self.repos.populateSack(which=repos)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/repos.py", line 245, in populateSack
sack.populate(repo, mdtype, callback, cacheonly)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 149, in populate
if self._check_db_version(repo, mydbtype):
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 203, in _check_db_version
return repo._check_db_version(mdtype)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 928, in _check_db_version
repoXML = self.repoXML
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1086, in <lambda>
repoXML = property(fget=lambda self: self._getRepoXML(),
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1078, in _getRepoXML
self._loadRepoXML(text=self)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1068, in _loadRepoXML
return self._groupLoadRepoXML(text, ["primary"])
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1052, in _groupLoadRepoXML
if self._commonLoadRepoXML(text):
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 904, in _commonLoadRepoXML
result = self._getFileRepoXML(local, text)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 772, in _getFileRepoXML
self._loadRepoXML(text=self)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1068, in _loadRepoXML
return self._groupLoadRepoXML(text, ["primary"])
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1052, in _groupLoadRepoXML
if self._commonLoadRepoXML(text):
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 904, in _commonLoadRepoXML
result = self._getFileRepoXML(local, text)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 772, in _getFileRepoXML
cache=self.http_caching == 'all')
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 643, in _getFile
result = self.grab.urlgrab(relative, local,
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 463, in <lambda>
grab = property(lambda self: self._getgrab())
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 458, in _getgrab
self._setupGrab()
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 447, in _setupGrab
self._grab = mgclass(self._grabfunc, self.urls,
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 548, in <lambda>
urls = property(fget=lambda self: self._geturls(),
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 545, in _geturls
self._baseurlSetup()
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 514, in _baseurlSetup
self.mirrorurls = self._replace_and_check_url(mirrorurls)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 536, in _replace_and_check_url
print 'YumRepo Warning: not using ftp, http[s], or file for repos, skipping - %s' % (url)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/codecs.py", line 303, in write
data, consumed = self.encode(object, self.errors)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0x8b in position 72: ordinal not in range(128)

Hmm that's the first thing I'd check - seeing if I install OUTSIDE of VMWare, if the problem persists.

I have a strong suspicion that your problem is that you are running virtually (I know - it should work but nothing's perfect!) - especially since you say even the Live CD / DVD's yum is malfunctioning...

After installing Fedora Core 10 using VMware Workstation 6.5 on Vista, I get the same error. However, it works when I install Fedora Core 10 using VMware Workstation 6.5 on Win XP.

The default Fedora 10 installation is known to have some problems even when installed on real hardware. One of them is your yum problem: you will need to get a newer yum RPM package downloaded from somewhere (maybe http://find.rpm.net) and install it by hand (rpm -Uvh yum*.rpm).

Another ugly known problem is the messed-up GUI network setting tool. This mixes your netmask and gateway setting, so you might need to set your network settings by hand. During installation the network settings are set correctly, but as soon as you use the GUI network setting tool, your network settings break.

If you have a working network setting and yum is updated, then run a full update - this will update a few hundred packages, depending on what you have installed.

When all that is done, you should have a Fedora 10 system that works well.

linux

I installed yum-3.2.20-5.fc.noarch.rpm.
This did not fix the problem.

I installed yum-metadata-parser-1.1.2-10.fc10.i386.rpm.
This did not fix the problem.

My YUM issue went a away, and I don't know what changed.

First, the workaround:
In your enabled repositories (*.repo in /etc/yum.repos.d) comment out the "mirrorlist" parameter and uncomment the "baseurl". (You can leave the baseurl as fedoraproject.org or pick your favorite mirror.) As long as you don't try to parse a mirror list, I think your yum will work fine.

Some explanation (but hardly the full story ...)
The error described in the original post for this thread (and that occurs for me) occurs when Yum is parsing the mirror list for a repository. I struggled with this for several days and finally hit on trying the above. Once I got yum working, I did a full update hoping the latest releases would fix the yum problem, but the problem still occurs whenever yum tries to parse a mirrorlist. I cannot get yum to work with a mirrorlist.

Since repeated "googles" for this problem seem to turn up only this thread, it seems that the problem is somehow related to a Fedora VM on Windows, but ???

I am running VMWare Workstation 6.5.2 (build 156735) on Windows/XP Professional 5.1.2600, SP2, and did a standard Fedora 10 install from Fedora-10-i386-DVD.iso.