Re: Problem with RH8 up2date

[Michael Fratoni <mfratoni tuxfan homeip net>]

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On Sunday 29 December 2002 10:04 pm, grenoml wrote:
> I installed RH8 recently on a new machine and just ran up2date for the
> first time and selected everything for update (including kernel items).
>  It prompted me for the root password and then took a while but all the
> packages were downloaded and then repackaged and then it said
> 'installing /var/spool/up2date/kernel2.4.18-19.8.0.athlon.rpm' and the
> little watch came up and that's all she wrote... the install window
> went completely dead (no window refreshes - nothin').  So I looked in
> /var/log/messages and found this:
> ----------------------
> Dec 29 19:22:35 tltdev01-lin01 userhelper: pam_timestamp: timestamp
> file `/var/run/sudo/greno/unknown:root' is too old, disallowing access
> to up2date for UID 500
> Dec 29 19:31:14 tltdev01-lin01 userhelper: pam_timestamp: timestamp
> file `/var/run/sudo/greno/unknown:root' is too old, disallowing access
> to up2date for UID 500
> Dec 29 21:20:57 tltdev01-lin01 sshd(pam_unix)[30904]: session opened
> for user greno by (uid=500)
> ----------------------
>
> So I need a little help here.
>
> What state is my system in.  I have not rebooted because I'm afraid it
> might not come back up since it was dealing with a kernel update.

There are some known issues with rpm hanging, leaving the database in an 
unusable state, see below.

> What should I do to correct the 'too old' problem in the message log.

This is normal. If the timestamp is too old, you are prompted for the root 
password. If it is recent enough, (less than 5 min) access is allowed 
without the password.

> Can I just kill the install window and rerun up2date again?

You can, but you'll need to fix your rpm database after you do.
Kill the up2date process. 
ps ax | grep up2date 
ps ax | grep rpm
(Kill any instances of either)
rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
(that's 2 underscores __db*)
rpm --rebuilddb
# rpm --rebuilddb will take several minutes to finish.

Try running up2date again. It won't download the packages again, it will 
use the one's in /var/spool/up2date/.

At this point, you don't need up2date to finish, you can do it from the 
command line. 
cd /var/spool/up2date/
# Install the kernel package.
rpm -ivh kernel-2.4*.rpm
# get the kernel package out of the way..
mkdir kernel
mv kernel-2.4*.rpm kernel/
# or delete it, just get it out of the way.
# Freshen the other packages.
rpm -Fvh *.rpm

Hope that helps,
- -- 
- -Michael

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Red Hat Linux 7.{2,3}|8.0 in 8M of RAM: http://www.rule-project.org/
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