Bug 33672

Summary:	Crash recovery when rpm is not functioning
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	Need Real Name <bjfowler>
Component:	rpm	Assignee:	Jeff Johnson <jbj>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	QA Contact:	David Lawrence <dkl>
Severity:	low	Docs Contact:
Priority:	low
Version:	7.0
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2001-03-28 19:43:13 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Need Real Name 2001-03-28 19:43:09 UTC

RASH RECOVERY AND RPM

There seems to be subtle fault in the presentation of Red Hat that I wish 
to bring to your attention. 

I had enormous difficulty upgrading from rh 6.1 to 7.0, caused mainly by 
the change from  RPM 3 to 
RPM 4.   I could not get the rpm system to work because of circular 
dependencies in the database 
format.  In desperation I deleted RPM 3 and loaded RPM 4 off the CD.  To 
my horror, I found that I had 
no way of using RPM because it in rpm format, which of course need RPM to 
unpack it!   I resolved 
the problem by going to rpm.org and downloading RPM 4 in .tgz format, 
from which I could obtain a 
working version using gunzip and tar.

It struck me that a distribution ought to contain a rescue procedure that 
does not rely on having a 
working version of RPM available.  I suggest that RPM be provided not 
just as an RPM but also as a 
tar package, with tar available on the rescue disk or somewhere else 
convenient for unpacking.   This 
would allow a 'black start' with the need for a complete re-installation.

Comment 1 Jeff Johnson 2001-03-29 14:53:04 UTC

All versions of rpm are always available at ftp.rpm.org, in packages that
can be unpacked with rpm2cpio, and, for the i386 platforms, in a tar
ball.

Whether a better job can be done with rescue disks and such is trickier,
as there simply isn't a whole lot of room on a floppy disk.

FWIW, if you had chosen to use the anaconda installer to upgrade
from 6.1 to 7.0, your upgrade path would have been far, far easier.

Otherwise, rpm-3.0.5 understands both version 3 and version 4 packages.

Circular dependencies, meanwhile, are a distribution problem, not an rpm
problem.
Yes there are/were big changes beween 6.1 and 7.0