Description of problem: Open packagekit application, try to search for packages, yumbackend.py search-name none "searchstring" hangs FOREVER if a repo is down or network connectivity is flaky. The fix is simple: set a reasonable timeout of like 10 or 15 seconds for sockets in the yumbackend.py helper. Problem solved. Network daemons have no business leaving desktop applications forever waiting for data.
Created attachment 324963 [details] what I've put into git master I've put this patch into git master. Is this the sort of thing you meant?
See also bug 487321 (the patch from over here doesn't help with it).