Hardware of the box appears to be OK. MythTV runs for days, as does mysql, etc.

It is hard to keep the machine up to date with the rpm updates that are made available as each update run involves multiple segfaults to get the updates done.
How can we get this fixed?

The box is stable, dual core x86_64, running MythTV (and mysql, etc).

In case you get the segfault every time you use any rpm/yum command, could you provide a gdb backtrace with debuginfo installed?

Not every time the segfault appears. 60% of times?
Some operations do complete, so I am able -with perseverence- to rebuild the rpm database and install updates.
In an attempt to fix the issue I reinstalled db4 rpms by downloading them and do a force install of the same rpms as installed.
So far no segafult but I will keep trying.

Today's update of about 10 packages went fine.
So it looks like reinstalling the db4 rpms fixed the random segafults?

Maybe. I have too few clues to decide what actually happened to your db4. If you see the segfaults again, please reopen this bug so that I can investigate. Thanks!

# yum update
Loaded plugins: presto, refresh-packagekit
Setting up Update Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package java-1.6.0-openjdk.x86_64 1:1.6.0.0-52.1.9.6.fc14 set to be updated
---> Package java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin.x86_64 1:1.6.0.0-52.1.9.6.fc14 set to be updated
---> Package shadow-utils.x86_64 2:4.1.4.2-11.fc14 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
 Package                     Arch     Version                   Repository
                                                                           Size
================================================================================
Updating:
 java-1.6.0-openjdk          x86_64   1:1.6.0.0-52.1.9.6.fc14   updates    26 M
 java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin   x86_64   1:1.6.0.0-52.1.9.6.fc14   updates   106 k
 shadow-utils                x86_64   2:4.1.4.2-11.fc14         updates   907 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Upgrade       3 Package(s)

Total download size: 27 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Setting up and reading Presto delta metadata
ftp://alviss.et.tudelft.nl/pub/fedora/linux/updates/14/x86_64/repodata/680392ec334dd64a97c9712f227ec5af018d2a67c7e6e28431e9ceaec32bdfa9-prestodelta.xml.gz: [Errno 12] Timeout on ftp://alviss.et.tudelft.nl/pub/fedora/linux/updates/14/x86_64/repodata/680392ec334dd64a97c9712f227ec5af018d2a67c7e6e28431e9ceaec32bdfa9-prestodelta.xml.gz: (28, '')
Trying other mirror.
updates/prestodelta                                      | 762 kB     00:01     
Processing delta metadata
Download delta size: 540 k
(1/3): java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-51.1.9.5.fc14_1.6.0.0- | 260 kB     00:01     
(2/3): java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin-1.6.0.0-51.1.9.5.fc14_1 |  36 kB     00:00     
(3/3): shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-10.fc14_4.1.4.2-11.fc14.x86_ | 243 kB     00:00     
Finishing rebuild of rpms, from deltarpms
<delta rebuild>                                          |  27 MB     00:21     
Presto reduced the update size by 99% (from 27 M to 540 k).
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Updating       : 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-52.1.9.6.fc14.x86_64        1/6 
  Updating       : 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin-1.6.0.0-52.1.9.6.fc14.x86_   2/6 
  Updating       : 2:shadow-utils-4.1.4.2-11.fc14.x86_64                    3/6 
  Cleanup        : 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin-1.6.0.0-51.1.9.5.fc14.x86_   4/6 
  Cleanup        : 1:java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0-51.1.9.5.fc14.x86_64        5/6 
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
[root@recorder Myth]# yum update^C
[root@recorder Myth]# dmesg
[drm:radeon_dvi_detect] *ERROR* HDMI-A-1: probed a monitor but no|invalid EDID
yum[2063]: segfault at 28 ip 00000034d2b23754 sp 00007fffb3fe0d60 error 4 in libdb-4.8.so[34d2a00000+17b000]

D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpm/Packages
D: closed   db environment /var/lib/rpm
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Pubkeys
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Filedigests
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Sha1header
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Sigmd5
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Installtid
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Provideversion
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Requireversion
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Dirnames
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Triggername
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Obsoletename
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Conflictname
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Providename
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Requirename
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Group
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Basenames
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Name
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348/Packages
D: closed   db environment /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348
D: removing directory /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.2348
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpm/Name
D: closed   db index       /var/lib/rpm/Packages
D: closed   db environment /var/lib/rpm
[root@recorder rpm]# nice -n20 ionice -c3 yum-complete-transaction 
Loaded plugins: presto, refresh-packagekit
There are 1 outstanding transactions to complete. Finishing the most recent one
The remaining transaction had 1 elements left to run
--> Running transaction check
---> Package shadow-utils.x86_64 2:4.1.4.2-10.fc14 set to be erased
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
[root@recorder rpm]#