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Description of problem: rpm appears to be unable to determine OS version when --root is specified Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): RPM version 4.8.1 How reproducible: rpm --root=/media/OS/home/foo -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm Steps to Reproduce: 1. cd /media/OS 2. mkdir foo 3. Now just issue the command given above Actual results: Retrieving http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm warning: /media/OS/home/foo/var/tmp/rpm-tmp.fVTw4y: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 16ca1a56: NOKEY error: Failed dependencies: /bin/sh is needed by rpmfusion-free-release-12-3.noarch system-release >= 12 is needed by rpmfusion-free-release-12-3.noarch Expected results: Since `uname -a` shows: Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.35.6-45.fc14.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Oct 18 23:57:44 UTC 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux we are on Fedora 14, and 14 is >= 12 -- so either (A) rpm command should PASS or (B) failure message should say exactly what is wrong. Additional info: Above command results in PASS/SUCCESS when "--root=<value>" is _not_ used.
I wonder what are you expecting --root to do? This is exactly how its supposed to work: --root specifies that rpm should operate in an alternate system root, including a different rpmdb, as opposed to working on the "running system" whose root is /. This is used for example during initial installation in anaconda and creation of chroot'able environments (used by eg mock).
Sorry; And thanks for the clarification. I though --root was specifying a different location in which rpm would create its database. For context, I am contemplating a move from Windows to Fedora, and am trying F14 on a Live USB stick; the USB stick does not have much room (just 1G), but /media/OS has lots of room; the sound was not good, and I wanted to see if VLC would output better sound. (I point yum's --installroot to a directory in /media/OS/.)