When I try to install an RPM, I get the message (from KPackage or prompt rpm)

"error: cannot open packages index using db3 - no such file or directory (2)
error: cannot open packages database sin /var/lib/rpm"

when I try to --initdb it returns the first part, about not opening packages index using db3..

i have no idea what's going on here. I've never installed an RPM and i think i'm doing it right. the errors all around indicate i'm not. i tried searching the web and trying what was said but none have helped. any help is greatly appreciated.

Doh, figured it out. My distro's based on Debian, RPM doens't get along with Debian, used alien to convert it to a .deb file and went from there and it worked.