Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 1028147
firefox package cannot be upgraded or reinstalled
Last modified: 2013-11-12 05:11:54 EST
Description of problem: firefox-24 can be installed only once; any update or reinstall after that will fail with a rpm cpio unpacking error. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): firefox-24.1.0-2.el7.x86_64 How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: With firefox not installed: 1. yum install firefox 2. yum reinstall firefox Actual results: Yum command output: -------------------------------- Running transaction Installing : firefox-24.1.0-2.el7.x86_64 1/1 Error unpacking rpm package firefox-24.1.0-2.el7.x86_64 error: unpacking of archive failed on file /usr/lib64/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences: cpio: rename Verifying : firefox-24.1.0-2.el7.x86_64 1/1 Failed: firefox.x86_64 0:24.1.0-2.el7 -------------------------------- If firefox-24 is updated, the bulk of the files of firefox do get installed but rpmdb is left with the older version, leading to unfixable broken dependencies in rpmdn. Expected results: Should install. Additional info: The problem is the symlink /usr/lib64/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences # ls -l /usr/lib64/firefox/browser/defaults/ total 0 lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 39 Nov 7 18:42 preferences -> /usr/lib64/firefox/defaults/preferences After a reinstall, this becomes a directory, which for many years has been a fatal transition for rpm: # ls -l /usr/lib64/firefox/browser/defaults/ total 4 drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root 4096 Nov 7 18:43 preferences lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 39 Nov 7 18:43 preferences;527bdf56 -> /usr/lib64/firefox/defaults/preferences If these entries are removed, then firefox will again reinstall perfectly, but only once, at which point the symlink is again a directory and subsequent reinstalls will again fail. Notably, in f19 firefox, /usr/lib64/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences/ is already a directory, not a symlink, and it does not have this issue. There is a related, closed f19 bug at bz#976420.
Bug needs fixed before rc; rpm doesn't handle changes between symlink and directory well, so updating to the fix is still going to be problematic to existing users. Requesting rc blocker.
Can be reproduced locally with "rpm -ihv package_name --replacepkgs"
It should be fixed by firefox-24.1.0-3.el7.
(In reply to Martin Stransky from comment #3) > It should be fixed by firefox-24.1.0-3.el7. Confirmed, works for me. After a # rm -rf /usr/lib64/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences* I can update to and reinstall the new build without trouble. Thanks!
Fixed in firefox-24.1.0-3.el7