RPM, someone please explain....

SR712 · 09-03-2003, 11:35 AM

I am fairly new to Linux, but am generally enjoying my experience with Red Hat 9. Would someone please explain the Add or Remove Packages deal to me? Why when I run it, and select programs to uninstall, does it then say that it can't find them, and that I would have to install it first. ...Huh? Excuse me, I didn't say they were installed... You did. Just seems kinda goofy to me. I have tried to --rebuilddb the rpm database, and it ends with the error that is really not an error...

db4 error(16) from dbenv->remove: Device or resource busy.

Thank you for your help.

david_ross · 09-03-2003, 02:43 PM

The rpm databases have never been the most reliable. Try killing of any rpm proccesses that are running (a reboot should do it) If you can't reboot then try:
killall rpm

Then remove the old db:
rm -f /var/lib/rpm/_*

An create a new one:
rpm --rebuilddb

SR712 · 09-03-2003, 03:53 PM

Thanks David, but I did that, and still goofy.

david_ross · 09-03-2003, 04:01 PM

Do the packages show up if you use the CLI:
rpm -qa | grep -i PACKAGE

Replace PACKAGE for the name of a package that is causing a problem.

BajaNick · 09-03-2003, 04:18 PM

SR712 ive had the same thing for a long time and i have posted several times with no fix found. I cant install any rpms anymore. kinda sux. sorry to thread jump but David is there any fix for this, I did rpm -qa | grep -i * and it came up with these files. What should i do with them?

Makefile.am: addressbook.csv\

SR712 · 09-04-2003, 08:51 AM

I don't know if it would make any difference, but this machine was originally Red Hat Ver8, and was updated to Ver9. Maybe there is something odd with the db between those versions. Even if there was, you'd think deleting the rpm db and rebuilding it would fix it.

BajaNick · 09-04-2003, 10:15 AM

No i dont think that would matter. I have rebuilt the db before on both and it worked.

david_ross · 09-04-2003, 12:28 PM

If it does come up with packages then try removing them with:
rpm -e package

Replace "package" with the pakagename - no version numbers though.

BajaNick · 09-04-2003, 05:41 PM

It looks like this is a bug according to the link on this thread i tried the workaround but i dont know if it worked.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=88196

SR712 · 09-08-2003, 01:35 PM

Well, I resolved this by manually removing packages myself. It just seems odd to me that a computer can't figure out a 3 level database with dependancies, but I can. HaHa. So much for automation, eh? What good is an add/remove program, if it doesn't really work? Why bother?

Thanks, everyone for your help.