Created attachment 910763 [details] dnf output showing problem I initially thought this was a repo problem that DNF wasn't responding to helpfully: With yum: ---- ---> Package texlive-kpathsea-lib.x86_64 3:2013-12.20140512_r33995.fc21 will be updated --> Processing Dependency: texlive-kpathsea-lib = 3:2013-12.20140512_r33995.fc21 for package: 3:texlive-kpathsea-bin-svn30088.0-12.20140512_r33995.fc21.x86_64 ---> Package texlive-kpathsea-lib.x86_64 3:2014-0.1.20140525_r34255.fc21 will be an update ... Error: Package: 3:texlive-kpathsea-bin-svn30088.0-12.20140512_r33995.fc21.x86_64 (@rawhide) Requires: texlive-kpathsea-lib = 3:2013-12.20140512_r33995.fc21 Removing: 3:texlive-kpathsea-lib-2013-12.20140512_r33995.fc21.x86_64 (@rawhide) texlive-kpathsea-lib = 3:2013-12.20140512_r33995.fc21 Updated By: 3:texlive-kpathsea-lib-2014-0.1.20140525_r34255.fc21.x86_64 (rawhide) texlive-kpathsea-lib = 3:2014-0.1.20140525_r34255.fc21 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest ---- But with DNF: ---- Running transaction check Transaction check succeeded. Running transaction test Transaction test succeeded. Running transaction Transaction couldn't start (no root?) Error: Could not run transaction. ---- (See full output in attachment) But then I removed texlive-kpathsea-lib and dependencies, dnf still gives the same error. So, I did it with yum and everything was fine. ---- $ rpm -q dnf hawkey dnf-0.5.2-2.fc21.noarch hawkey-0.4.16-2.fc21.x86_64
Matthew, it looks like you ran dnf under a regular user, without the noroot plugin (from dnf-core-plugins) installed. Is that the case?
I'm pretty sure I ran it from my user account via sudo. In testing, the error sure does seem consistent with what would happen if I had forgotten the sudo. I don't *think* I'm that absent-minded, but I guess I'm getting older and that must be it. Does "Transaction couldn't start (no root?)" mean "not running as root"? That didn't even occur to me, as it seems to be saying that the _transaction_ has no root, whatever that might be. (An unfortunate effect of "root" having multiple meanings.) How about "Transaction couldn't start (required root privileges not available)" or something? It would also be nice to have the error _before_ the packages are all downloaded.
Improved the error message in 963bbe6, it is now going to say: Failed to obtain the transaction lock (logged in as: akozumpl). The 'noroot' plugin does exactly what you suggest, i.e. it stops DNF before any download happens and explains it nicely. 'dnf install dnf-plugins-core' should get you set.
Also see the related discussion at bug 910133.
dnf-plugins-core-0.1.1-2.fc20, dnf-0.5.3-1.fc20, hawkey-0.4.17-1.fc20 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 20. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/dnf-0.5.3-1.fc20,hawkey-0.4.17-1.fc20,dnf-plugins-core-0.1.1-2.fc20
Package dnf-plugins-core-0.1.1-2.fc20, dnf-0.5.3-1.fc20, hawkey-0.4.17-1.fc20: * should fix your issue, * was pushed to the Fedora 20 testing repository, * should be available at your local mirror within two days. Update it with: # su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing dnf-plugins-core-0.1.1-2.fc20 dnf-0.5.3-1.fc20 hawkey-0.4.17-1.fc20' as soon as you are able to. Please go to the following url: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2014-8167/dnf-0.5.3-1.fc20,hawkey-0.4.17-1.fc20,dnf-plugins-core-0.1.1-2.fc20 then log in and leave karma (feedback).
dnf-plugins-core-0.1.1-2.fc20, dnf-0.5.3-1.fc20, hawkey-0.4.17-1.fc20 has been pushed to the Fedora 20 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.