When upgrading fails (e.g. forced by root-partion of 80MB only), the system remains in an unusable state: - old rpm3 db was converted to rpm4, but no rpm4 available - the stage2 image filled the root partition up to the last bit and so some operations (mounting devices) got impossible I think if upgrades fail some cleanup must be done. E.g. if something goes wrong before installing the packages, the old rpm3 database must be restored and temporary files be deleted.
This defect is considered MUST-FIX for Winston Gold-release
This has all been fixed in our internal tree. Thanks for the report.