I couldn't find this topic, but I am surprised others aren't having this problem

I'm a noob with Suse Pers. 9.1, and when I try to start the "Install and Remove Software" program in Yast, the window pops up momentarily, anong with a little dialog that says something like "Reading package . . .", but it is all gone a split second later.

I've re-installed the OS but the same thing happens; the "Install and Remove Software" function works the first couple times I open it, but mysteriously (to me) stops!

Anyone have the magic answer? Is there a way to run this from the command line where I might see an error output?

Thanks!

You may start YaST2 from command line and see if it works.

End current session and go to console mode (if you have login screen press Ctrl-Alt-F1) and login as root, type

#init 3
.
.
#YaST2

and see if there are some package dependency problems or simply check if yast is installed completely ? I had a similar problem when upgraded Gnome, but after resolving dependencies it has gone away ....

are you trying to add or remove
are your "source of installation" up to date

Did you run an online update before it stopped working? Then this might be the solution:
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/0...tafteryou.html

It could also be a defective installation source. Yast often has problems with sources on the local HDD. Remove this source as suggested above.

Or the rpm database is corrupted. See here for help:
http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/1999/01/ke_rpm-db.html

If non ot this helped, check the logs in your homedirectory (.y2log) and /var/log/YaST2/y2log

I tried this, but "Yast2" led to a "command not found" or something like that. Maybe my bin or sbin or something isn't set up right. Is there a good place to learn how the bin and sbin should be used? By the way, how do you get back to the GUI mode after using CTRL+ALT+F1 to get to the command line mode?

The y2log has tons of info, but nothing really stands out to me.

Can't I just reinstall this module of yast? Would an update or freshen of the "packagemanager" rpm do the trick? I feel like i'm playing with fire here....

From the command line, you need to type just "yast". Yast2 is the gui version

And you need to be root to do this! As normal user you will get the 'command not found' error.
Yes you can, but I doubt it would help. This in not Windows, packages do not get corrupted so easily (unless you start deleting or moving file you no nothing about).

Is it possible that you attempt to install packages that are not for SuSE? Or do they have 'src' in the filename? The later one cannot be installed with Yast (they only contain source code, no binaries) and the other may not be accepted by Yast.

The log files are sorted chronologically. The latest info is at the end. If you ran an installation attempt just before, you should find just a few entries with that time and date. If you do not understand them, you may post these lines here.

OK,

I started Yast from the command line, then selected "Install and Remove Software". Then "Initializing..." and a few lines of what seems to be an error come up in the middle of the terminal and all is frozen. this text resembles:

Segmentation fault at /usr/share/YaST2/clients/sw_single.ycp:162
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ /sbin/yast: line 185: 22032 Segmentation fault $ybindir/y2base menu ncurses
│ │ linux:/ #

This is different from the problem report at http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/0...tafteryou.html as Abisko00 suggested. I tried to install popt as suggested, and it says:

linux:/home/lnebrown # rpm -Uhv /tmp/popt.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
package popt-1.7-176.3 is already installed

So does the error above (the seg faults) give any more clues as to what is wrong?

Thank you all for your responses thus far, I appreciate it!

Does 'Online Update' still work? Maybe a YOU patch will fix your problem. Or you can try to re-install the yast2-ncurses package...

well i would like to try that, but when i turn on my pc this morning, grub will no longer boot me into linux! I never thought i'd say this, but thankfully i still have win98 (first edition even!) as a boot option! I am getting so fed up with the instability (yes, i'm using "instability" and "linux" in the same paragraph.) of my system. Or at least MY system isn't....

so anyway, grub pops up, giving me the usual options (linux, windows, failsafe, something else...) and when I choose linux, the screen clears and one or two lines of white text pop up:

kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 vga=0x317 desktop resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent

then nothing.... it just stops until i restart.

Can anybody help? I'd like to not reinstall my operating system for the second time in 3 weeks...

thanks!

Seems you really messed-up your system I can't confirm what you said about instability and Linux. I would say I have a Windows/Linux lock-up ratio of about 10

What else did you do to repair Yast (apart from installing the popt package) ? I mean there must be a reason for this sudden lock-up...

Could you try to run a repair system from your boot CD?

I did an online update, installing the recommended items (including kernel stuff and KDE core components) plus I selected the nVidia video driver, but all seemed to install fine. I was attempting to decipher the complex web of stuff i need to install Kino and Audacity, perhaps trying to install a couple rpm's, but I can't think of any other major changes that I made.

I'll try the repair function, but last time i had trouble finding it and just reinstalled the system.

Next time, try the packages from packman
Audacity: http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=286
Kino: http://packman.links2linux.org/?action=367

Good luck!

um....apparently suse 9.1 PERSONAL users do not have the option to use the system repair utility!

First, on the green screen, i chose "Installation", then i chose my language, then it went straight to the Installation Settings page (although the installation book says i should have an opition to change the install mode to repair). When i choose the "mode" heading, it says that new installation is the only option for my system!

Does this sound accurate? Is there any hope here......