Description of problem: I installed redhat 9, downloaded the updates from a mirror and tried to rpm -Fvh them. Many of the rpm steps failed: [root@elab-linux2 i386]# rpm -Fvh *.rpm warning: balsa-2.0.6-2.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e Preparing... ########################################### [100%] 1:glibc-common ########################################### [ 8%] 2:glibc ########################################### [ 17%] error: %post(glibc-2.3.2-27.9) scriptlet failed, exit status 121 3:krb5-libs ########################################### [ 25%] 4:openssl ########################################### [ 33%] 5:samba-common ########################################### [ 42%] 6:samba ########################################### [ 50%] /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.22192: line 3: 783 Segmentation fault /usr/sbin/useradd -c "Apache" -u 48 -s /sbin/nologin -r -d /var/www apache 2>/dev/null 7:httpd ########################################### [ 58%] 8:glibc-devel ########################################### [ 67%] /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.63411: line 2: 790 Segmentation fault /usr/sbin/useradd -M -o -r -d / -s /sbin/nologin -c "NSCD Daemon" -u 28 nscd >/dev/null 2>&1 9:nscd ########################################### [ 75%] /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.63411: line 1: 794 Segmentation fault /usr/sbin/useradd -u 47 -d /var/spool/mqueue -r -s /sbin/nologin mailnull >/dev/null 2>&1 /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.63411: line 2: 795 Segmentation fault /usr/sbin/useradd -u 51 -d /var/spool/mqueue -r -s /sbin/nologin smmsp >/dev/null 2>&1 10:sendmail ########################################### [ 83%] error: %post(sendmail-8.12.8-5.90) scriptlet failed, exit status 139 /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.4459: line 1: 814 Segmentation fault /usr/sbin/groupadd -g 77 pcap 2>/dev/null /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.4459: line 3: 815 Segmentation fault /usr/sbin/useradd -u 77 -g 77 -s /sbin/nologin -M -r -d /var/arpwatch pcap 2>/dev/null 11:tcpdump ########################################### [ 92%] 12:xinetd ########################################### [100%]
If you were installing the i386 glibc RPM on an i686 or athlon machine, then this is a likely a dupe of bug 88456.
While bug 88456 certainly looks like it is a dupe, I am unsure. My kernel and glibc are as follows: glibc 2.3.2 i386 kernel-smp 2.4.20 i686 The kernel and kernel-smp are the only 686 RPM on the system. I haven't run into the same reboot problems listed in bug 88456 although I did have to reinstall a system yesterday because of 88456. rpm -Fvh *should NOT* attempt to install an i386 over an i686 rpm, but that is beside the point. A question: I don't see any i686 rpms available on either the install CDs or the mirror ftp sites. Are there two different distributions of rh9? Is it OK to have an i686 kernel with i386 rpms?
This sure looks like #88456, as gibc*i386.rpm does not enable NPTL which is used/needed by rpm-4.2. Try upgrading to glibc-*.i686.rpm, or, alternatively, downgrading to rpm-4.1.1 (which doesn't need/use NPTL). Installing glibc-*.i686.rpm is recommended for Red Hat 9. Does that fix?
OK, as per your recommendation: output from `rpm -qa | grep -E "(glibc|rpm|kernel)" | sort` (I added the arch version manually): glibc-2.3.2-27.9 i386 glibc-common-2.3.2-27.9 i386 glibc-devel-2.3.2-27.9 i386 glibc-kernheaders-2.4-8.10 i386 kernel-2.4.20-8 i686 kernel-pcmcia-cs-3.1.31-13 i386 kernel-smp-2.4.20-13.9 i686 kernel-smp-2.4.20-8 i686 kernel-source-2.4.20-13.9 i386 rpm-4.2-0.69 i386 rpm-python-4.2-0.69 i386 # rpm -Uvh glibc-2.3.2-27.9.i686.rpm warning: glibc-2.3.2-27.9.i686.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e Preparing... ########################################### [100%] package glibc-2.3.2-27.9 is already installed # rpm --force -Uvh glibc-2.3.2-27.9.i686.rpm warning: glibc-2.3.2-27.9.i686.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e Preparing... ########################################### [100%] 1:glibc ########################################### [100%] Stopping sshd:[ OK ] Starting sshd:[ OK ] Only change from the first rpm list was as expected: glibc-2.3.2-27.9 i386 I rebooted the server and it came up just fine. I tried updating gnupg as a quick test: # rpm -Fvh gnupg-1.2.1-4.i386.rpm lv-4.49.4-9.9.1.i386.rp m mysql-*.rpm warning: gnupg-1.2.1-4.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID db42a60e Preparing... ########################################### [100%] 1:gnupg ########################################### [100%] So I would tentatively say that this is working. I'll also have to keep in mind which rpms are i686 from now on. Thanks! :-) A question: If I have an i686 kernel and glibc, should I be recompiling updates from the source rpm rather than using the i386 rpms?
What's important is NPTL, not i686 vs i386. You need NPTL support in both glibc/kernel for rpm-4.2 to be able to "work". For basically legacy reasons NPTL is deisable in the "i386" versions of kernel/glibc. There are only a handful of programs where arch specific compiler flags makes any difference, and even there the difference is usually at the 10% level *at best*. So I wouldn't bother recompiling, it's a lot of work for little gain.