Description of problem: When using "yum reinstall kernel" with more than one kernel installed, the error message is "Error: No package(s) available to install" which is misleading. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 3.2.12-3.fc9 How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. Make sure you have two kernel packages installed 2. yum reinstall kernel 3. Actual results: Message saying no packages available. Expected results: Message indicating that package specification is ambiguous or possibly reinstalling all of the possible packages. Additional info:
at this point I'm inclined to add in code to yum that says: if isAllowedMultipleInstalls(pkg): print "don't reinstall these, doom, doom, doom" exit in the case of a kernel why are you reinstalling it? why not just remove then install. And if the kernel is running well that's just a world of a bad idea.
The reason I am repeatedly reinstalling the kernel is that I am trying to track down some mkinitrd bugs. Doing a reinstall is a simple way to regenerate the initrd image using the currently installed version of mkinitrd. I think it is fine to not do the reinstall if there are multiple packages, it just would be nice if the error message said that is what is going on as the current message is confusing.
One of note on this is things work this way even if there is only one installed kernel that matches one in the repository. For some of my tests I had two kernels installed, where only one of the two was in the repository.
okay, I've added a patch to yum to make it tell you 'no' if you try to reinstall a package like the kernel. It's possible at some point in the future we may allow this but for now, no.