when I rpm -Fvvh the rpm it fails at: ...... D:running preinstall script (if any) + '[' -f /var/lib/rpm/Packages -a -f /var/lib/rpm/packages.rpm ']' + exit 1 execution of rpm-4.0.2-0.40 script failed, exit status 1 ........ Both Packages and packages.rpm exist in /var/lib/rpm. I'm using rpm-3.0.4-0.48, glibc -2.2-12 and db1-1.85. db2-2.4.14-5, db3-3.1.17-5.
You need to remove one of packages.rpm or Packages, as you have both a db1 and a db3 database present. on your system. The smaller of the two is probably the one that needs to be nuked. If you are using rpm-3.0.4, you should be using packages.rpm. Try doing cd /var/lib/rpm mv Packages Packages-SAVE and install rpm. If the output of "rpm -qa" appears satisfactory, then remove the file Packages-SAVE. Finally, after upgrading, you should do "rpm --rebuilddb" to convert the database to db3 format.
FWIW, I mv'd Packages, which was the smaller file. That didn't work. rpm thought I had nothng installed., e.g. glibc, bash,etc. I then mv'd packages.rpm ,and put Packages back. That worked. This may be because I rpm --rebuilddb in rpm-3 after I installed db3. In any case it works now. thanks for your help. jay