What is the output of 'rpm -q --whatprovides redhat-release'?

[john@localhost ~]$ rpm -q --whatprovides redhat-release
fedora-release-8-5
[john@localhost ~]$ 

And does this happen reliably?

Created attachment 290429 [details]
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Comment on attachment 290429 [details]
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I've read some info about the issue and for a sec  i thought i was done because
of Yum, not sure sine i am not a linux pro, but that was my guess. now i have
to tell something and probably this can be the root of the issue. i had enable
YUM as the nornal method. now i do add some entry to the
/etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf
i nano edit that and added 'check_obsoletes = 1'

so well i will wait for any fix for this since i am a really noob yet in linux,
but i do really want to learn more..
thanks for any reply, i sure appriciate those with all my heart

Gudino -- you are seeing a separate issue (bug 421961)

(In reply to comment #2)
> [john@localhost ~]$ rpm -q --whatprovides redhat-release
> fedora-release-8-5
> [john@localhost ~]$ 
> 

[john@localhost ~]$ rpm -q --whatprovides redhat-release
fedora-release-8-5
[john@localhost ~]$ rpm -q --whatprovides redhat-release
fedora-release-8-5
[john@localhost ~]$ rpm -q --whatprovides redhat-release
fedora-release-8-5
[john@localhost ~]$ 

 it would appear to be a reliable response

Just retryed and received following error message:

Component: pirut
Summary: TBe0876e9f __init__.py:421:simpleDBInstalled:TypeError: rpmdb open failed

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pirut/GroupSelector.py", line 410, in
_groupSelected
    self.__setGroupDescription(grp)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pirut/GroupSelector.py", line 427, in
__setGroupDescription
    if self.ayum.isPackageInstalled(p):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pirut/__init__.py", line 439, in
isPackageInstalled
    installed = self.simpleDBInstalled(name)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pirut/__init__.py", line 421, in
simpleDBInstalled
    mi = self.ts.ts.dbMatch('name', name)
TypeError: rpmdb open failed

Local variables in innermost frame:
self: <__main__.PackageManager object at 0xa5b068c>
arch: None
name: tomboy

Following a reboot, retrieving update information icon appeared. On selecting
Apply updates, following unhandled exception error message appeared. Could this
be part of the same problem? 
Component: pirut
Summary: TB7bcc1c48 config.py:707:_getsysver:TypeError: rpmdb open failed

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/sbin/pup", line 611, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/sbin/pup", line 603, in main
    pup = PackageUpdater(not options.autoapply, options.config)
  File "/usr/sbin/pup", line 80, in __init__
    GraphicalYumBase.__init__(self, False, config)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/pirut/__init__.py", line 132, in __init__
    plugin_types=(yum.plugins.TYPE_CORE,))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 116, in
doConfigSetup
    errorlevel=errorlevel)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 162, in _getConfig
    self._conf = config.readMainConfig(startupconf)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/config.py", line 640, in readMainConfig
    yumvars['releasever'] = _getsysver(startupconf.installroot,
startupconf.distroverpkg)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/yum/config.py", line 707, in _getsysver
    idx = ts.dbMatch('provides', distroverpkg)
TypeError: rpmdb open failed

Local variables in innermost frame:
installroot: /
ts: <rpmUtils.transaction.TransactionWrapper instance at 0xa60b48c>
distroverpkg: redhat-release

I've had this error for over a week, and I have tried several of the suggested
solutions, with no success.

Since pirut fails, what is the "manual" work-around?  Can I use some sort of
apt-get or rpm command to bypass pirut?

Surely this group (255341, 426246, 426894) are all from the same root cause?

Any movement on resolving this issue?

This should be fixed with the update which will be going out in the next week or so.

*** Bug 426845 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***