Bug 715055

I also observed this bug. For me, installation from the base channel always worked as expected, but after enabling the "optional" channel and trying to install the development versions of certain libraries (the standard versions of which belong to the base channel), I got the erroneous message that the packages were already installed.
And yes, in all cases yum did the job without any problem ;)

I am noticing that I can get packages from the RHN repos using the GUI this afternoon.  Does gnome-packagekit sync to the repos at different times?

This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for
inclusion in the current release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Because the affected component is not scheduled to be updated
in the current release, Red Hat is unfortunately unable to
address this request at this time. Red Hat invites you to
ask your support representative to propose this request, if
appropriate and relevant, in the next release of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. If you would like it considered as an
exception in the current release, please ask your support
representative.

I know the desktop/workstation segment isn't as high a priority as the server market, but having a front-end you supply to a package manager you supply work right with your repositories might be a good idea.

(In reply to comment #5)
> I know the desktop/workstation segment isn't as high a priority as the server
> market, but having a front-end you supply to a package manager you supply work
> right with your repositories might be a good idea.

Could you supply more details perhaps? What repos have you got enabled? What's the error message in the client? What version packages are installed? What packages and versions are you trying to install? Any screenshots?

Created attachment 518329 [details]
Packagekit notification icon

Created attachment 518330 [details]
Package manager messages

Created attachment 518331 [details]
Installation error message generated in Add/Remove Software

Sorry, no snark intended.  However it is a bit worrying when the desktop package manager/updater says it can't find a package in the official repositories.

The problem is that gnome-packagekit doesn't work right with the RHN Workstation repositories from the start.  I have EPEL, RPMForge, and Google Chrome in my extra repositories, but this issue came up before adding them.  These other repositories function appropriately.

Two things typically occur:

1) During an update scenario(this is the most noisy of the two in this  
   problem), with the update notification icon will often come the package  
   manager status icon as seen in 'Notification.png'.  The updater will 
   install whatever it has two and then exit normally.  However, it will 
   still have update notification icon present with the package manager 
   icon.  The messages in the package manger notification look much like 
   what you would see in 'Screenshot-Package Manger Messages.png'.  
   Thankfully, while it is louder than the second scenario, it is rarer.

2) Adding software in the Add/Remove Software program generates an "All  
   packages are already installed" error dialog box as seen in 'Screenshot-
   Untitled Window.png'.  This will also cause the notification icon to 
   display messages like what was seen in 'Screenshot-Package Manager 
   Messages.png'.

Both can typically be resolved using yum in a console window.

Also, curiously, running Gnome as root and performing these two actions does not generate the error.

There is bound to be more information I can find but this is a start.

Created attachment 518555 [details]
Transaction error on updates.

This looks a lot like https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=710406

It does look like this bug is a duplicate of 710406.  Feel free to mark this as such.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 710406 ***