It removes the database files... this is a more recent command... perhaps RH 7.3 (I'm assuming you're using this b/c you installed that RPM db) would use a different command. How about grepping for the _db* files and see where they are stored.

He is telling you to rerove your db and then have rpm rebuild it. Looks promising.

rm = remove
-f = force
-vv = very verbose, meaning lots of output. Mostly things none of us will understand. I would only add to that:

rpm -vv --rebuilddb 2>rpm_error.txt

which will create a text file with all error info in case we need it if this does not work.

dang he beat me to it

# cd /
# find . -name "*__db*"
./usr/share/doc/rpm-devel-4.0.4/apidocs/html/group__db1.html
./usr/share/doc/rpm-devel-4.0.4/apidocs/html/group__db3.html
./usr/share/doc/rpm-devel-4.0.4/apidocs/html/group__dbi.html
./usr/share/doc/rpm-devel-4.0.4/apidocs/html/struct__dbiIndex.html
./usr/share/doc/rpm-devel-4.0.4/apidocs/html/struct__dbiIndexItem.html
./usr/share/doc/rpm-devel-4.0.4/apidocs/html/struct__dbiIndexSet.html
./usr/share/doc/rpm-devel-4.0.4/apidocs/html/struct__dbiVec.html
./usr/share/doc/rpm-devel-4.0.4/apidocs/html/union__dbswap.html


these are what i found. however, i assume i'm suppose to be lookig for these:

/var/lib/rpm/__db.001
/var/lib/rpm/__db.002
/var/lib/rpm/__db.003


but i can't find them.....am i missing something here.....is this why this isn't working?

Missing those files would definately screw up your apt-get/rpm functionality since those files contain the info on the rpms installed on your system... the rpm -vv --rebuilddb doesn't work for you right?

Use BigNate's suggestion:

rpm -vv --rebuilddb 2>rpm_error.txt

Then, maybe we can see why rpm isn't rebuilding your database.

it's really large...what do you want me to do...post it...or just look for stuff? what exactly would i be looking for?

Well, any errors that you see... if it looks like it is rebuilding then check in /var/lib/rpm to see if you have _db files...

well the output is huged and looks something like this:

D: rebuilding database /var/lib/rpm into /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154
D: creating directory /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154
D: opening old database with dbapi 3
D: opening db environment /var/lib/rpm/Packages create:mpool
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpm/Packages rdonly mode=0x0
D: locked db index /var/lib/rpm/Packages
D: opening new database with dbapi 3
D: opening db environment /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Packages create:mpool
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Packages create mode=0x42
D: +++ 1 libpng-1.0.12-2
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Name create mode=0x42
D: adding "libpng" to Name index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Basenames create mode=0x42
D: adding 9 entries to Basenames index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Group create mode=0x42
D: adding "System Environment/Libraries" to Group index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Requirename create mode=0x42
D: adding 11 entries to Requirename index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Providename create mode=0x42
D: adding 2 entries to Providename index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Conflictname create mode=0x42
D: adding "qt" to Conflictname index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Dirnames create mode=0x42
D: adding 4 entries to Dirnames index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Requireversion create mode=0x42
D: adding 11 entries to Requireversion index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Provideversion create mode=0x42
D: adding 2 entries to Provideversion index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Installtid create mode=0x42
D: adding 1 entries to Installtid index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Sigmd5 create mode=0x42
D: adding 1 entries to Sigmd5 index.
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Filemd5s create mode=0x42
D: adding 9 entries to Filemd5s index.
D: +++ 2 cdp-0.33-22
D: adding "cdp" to Name index.
.
.
.
<skip many lines>
.
.
.
D: +++ 444 gcc-c++-2.96-110
D: adding "gcc-c++" to Name index.
D: adding 23 entries to Basenames index.
D: adding "Development/Languages" to Group index.
D: adding 10 entries to Requirename index.
D: adding "gcc-c++" to Providename index.
D: adding 9 entries to Dirnames index.
D: adding 10 entries to Requireversion index.
D: adding "2.96-110" to Provideversion index.
D: adding 1 entries to Installtid index.
D: adding 1 entries to Sigmd5 index.
D: adding "a8293eeb64c62295660ce013b5c950191628b996" to Sha1header index.
D: adding 23 entries to Filemd5s index.
D: +++ 445 rpmdb-redhat-7.3-0.20020613
D: adding "rpmdb-redhat" to Name index.
D: adding 16 entries to Basenames index.
D: adding "Development/System" to Group index.
D: adding "rpmdb-redhat" to Providename index.
D: adding 2 entries to Dirnames index.
D: adding 2 entries to Requireversion index.
D: adding "7.3-0.20020613" to Provideversion index.
D: adding 1 entries to Installtid index.
D: adding 1 entries to Sigmd5 index.
D: adding "a812236c42d532434172ba77bdf86e0e9a8ae812" to Sha1header index.
D: adding 16 entries to Filemd5s index.
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpm/Packages
D: closed db environment /var/lib/rpm/Packages
D: removed db environment /var/lib/rpm/Packages
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Filemd5s
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Filemd5s
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Sha1header
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Sha1header
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Sigmd5
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Sigmd5
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Installtid
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Installtid
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Provideversion
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Provideversion
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Requireversion
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Requireversion
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Dirnames
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Dirnames
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Triggername
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Triggername
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Conflictname
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Conflictname
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Providename
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Providename
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Requirename
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Requirename
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Group
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Group
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Basenames
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Basenames
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Name
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Name
D: closed db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Packages
D: closed db environment /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Packages
D: removed db environment /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Packages
D: verified db index /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154/Packages
D: removing directory /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.4154


not really sure what i'm looking for, sorry. but this is what it looks like. what is this command suppose to look like..aka what should the output look like?...not like this?

That looks right to me. Do you have _db files in /var/lib/rpm?

nope:

# cd /var/lib/rpm
# ls -lah
total 15M
drwxr-xr-x 2 rpm rpm 1.0k Dec 19 12:54 .
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root 1.0k Dec 19 12:54 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.5M Dec 19 12:54 Basenames
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12k Dec 19 12:54 Conflictname
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 332k Dec 19 12:54 Dirnames
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2.5M Dec 19 12:54 Filemd5s
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12k Dec 19 12:54 Group
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12k Dec 19 12:54 Installtid
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24k Dec 19 12:54 Name
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9.6M Dec 19 12:54 Packages
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 168k Dec 19 12:54 Providename
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 44k Dec 19 12:54 Provideversion
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 72k Dec 19 12:54 Requirename
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 56k Dec 19 12:54 Requireversion
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 48k Dec 19 12:54 Sha1header
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24k Dec 19 12:54 Sigmd5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12k Dec 19 12:54 Triggername

This is what mine looks like after doing a rpm rebuild:

total 54M
drwxr-xr-x 2 rpm rpm 576 Dec 19 14:33 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 528 Dec 19 14:12 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 10M Dec 19 14:15 Basenames
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 12K Dec 19 14:13 Conflictname
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16K Dec 19 14:33 __db.001
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.3M Dec 19 14:33 __db.002
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 448K Dec 19 14:33 __db.003
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 1.5M Dec 19 14:15 Dirnames
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 11M Dec 19 14:15 Filemd5s
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 12K Dec 19 14:15 Group
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 16K Dec 19 14:15 Installtid
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 44K Dec 19 14:15 Name
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 36M Dec 19 14:15 Packages
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 324K Dec 19 14:15 Providename
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 88K Dec 19 14:15 Provideversion
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 12K Dec 19 14:15 Pubkeys
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 228K Dec 19 14:15 Requirename
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 156K Dec 19 14:15 Requireversion
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 84K Dec 19 14:15 Sha1header
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 48K Dec 19 14:15 Sigmd5
-rw-r--r-- 1 rpm rpm 12K Dec 19 14:15 Triggername

what command....exactly? i think i ran it already....but i never got any:

__db.001
__db.002
__db.003


and they aren't just missplaced. so there is problaby my problem or atleast a symptom....but my rebuild command is't fixing it.....i don't know why.

Alright, try this:

rpm --initdb

then run

rpm -vv --rebuilddb

Th first command actually rebuilds the db and the second fixes the db table headers

still didn't seem to work. the first command (rpm --initdb) didn't seem to do anything.

# rpm --initdb
#

i don't know maybe it's all background. then i ran the rebuild again. it worked about as before. i check to see if there was any __db files in /var/lib/rpm/, but there still wasn't. and the update command still can't connect.

guys i really appreciate the help. hopefully it will get worked out. but it's friday and i won't touch it again til monday. so you want here anything else from me til then. but thanks for the help, and i haven't given up. i'm just going to be out of the office.