Problem re-installing sendmail on Redhat 7.2

mehranalmasi · 07-30-2008, 06:43 PM

Hi,
My sendmail install on RH 7.2 failed to work as intended so I decided to uninstall the RPM and reinstall sendmail from CD.
After uninstalling, I get a problem when the RPM tries to rename the /usr/sbin/sendmail.

error: unpacking of archive failed on file /usr/sbin/sendmail: cpio: rename failed - Operation not permitted

The permissions for the file ar: -r-sr-xr-x

Please help!

thanks.

chrism01 · 07-30-2008, 10:04 PM

Do you know that RH7.2 was discontinued many yrs ago and is not supported, neither are updates avail, which means its wide open to exploits?
If at all possible, use a modern distro eg Fedora 8 or 9.
It also means you'll have trouble getting help because almost nobody else is running it.

mehranalmasi · 07-31-2008, 11:34 AM

I do know! this machine is not exposed to internet and only does cvs. I am hoping that the solution to the problem I have is not unique to the version.

TheOneAndOnlySM · 07-31-2008, 12:22 PM

It looks like he file does not have write permissions. Temporarily make it writable with:

chmod 777 /usr/sbin/sendmail

Make sure permissions are set back (if the rpm doesn't automatically do it) with:

chmod 555 /usr/sbin/sendmail

Hope this helps!

mehranalmasi · 07-31-2008, 03:27 PM

It seems like nothing is permitted on the file!

[root@sbin]# chmod 777 /usr/sbin/sendmail
chmod: changing permissions of `/usr/sbin/sendmail': Operation not permitted

mehranalmasi · 07-31-2008, 03:29 PM

[root@sbin]# ls -l sendmail
-r-sr-xr-x 1 root root 451076 Aug 31 2001 sendmail

TheOneAndOnlySM · 08-01-2008, 01:35 AM

Hmm, strange...

Okay, try going into runlevel 1 with:
telinit 1

You should login as root and then try changing the permissions and installing the rpm within this runlevel.

If that doesn't work, the next best thing I can think of is trying to boot a live-cd, changing the permissions from there (so that the the root partition isn't being actively used) and, if you can, run the rpm program from the live-cd. You can also try chroot'ing into your root partition from the live-cd with:
chroot /path/to/root/mount

Good luck!

mehranalmasi · 08-05-2008, 01:20 PM

I was hoping that it wouldn't be that strange

I tried changing permissions after running telinit 1, but I got the same permissions problem. If by any chance it helps, the mv command gives me
mv: cannot unlink `sendmail': Operation not permitted
mv: cannot remove `sendmail': Operation not permitted

I think by booting to a live-cd you mean to boot from the installation CD? when I do, which option should I choose?

thanks,
Mehran