So it looks like a lot of md5 sums and file sizes got changed which would appear to have caused the problems.
Also, curious why a 4 box would have yum anyways? Shouldn't it have up2date still? Not sure as I usually dont play with Fedora and it could be that just RedHat 4 was still on up2date and didnt want to google that far.
Since yum is hosed I would remove it with NO DEPS! It will remove python 2.4 and many many others as deps.
Then do a rpm install with no deps from the yum package here:
https://archives.fedoraproject.org/p...s/Fedora/RPMS/
But first check on up2date and see if that is usable.
Additionally what are you trying to do with yum on a fedora 4 box that, from your description, sounds like it is held up with toothpicks? I would avoid upgrading any packages with yum as Im not sure how stable those old 2005 repo's still are.
If I were in your shoes I would look at a CentOS 6 box or something like vyatta if you need a routing/network appliance style box. A lot of these are opinions but just some food for thought.
Post some more details about what you are actually trying to do instead of just saying yum is f'ed in the a.