yum/rpm inconsistencies

Question

I'm using RHEL 5 (64-bit) and have come across an inconsistency with rpm/yum. When I attempt to install a 32-bit RPM, I'm told the RPM is already installed when only the 64-bit version exists on the disk:

$ rpm -Uvh ./libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.i386.rpm
Preparing...                ########################### [100%]
        package libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.i386 is already installed

$ rpm -q libsysfs --qf '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}.%{ARCH}\n
libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.x86_64

I have tried rebuilding the database, but I get the same error.

I have verified the RPM is not actually installed. When I run rpm -qp ./libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.i386.rpm I can confirm the files listed do not exist on the system.

What am I missing? It there something else RPM looks at to see if an RPM is already installed?

Edit 1

Not sure if this is something to do with the RPM itself or not. After running updatedb, erasing the RPM with rpm -e libsysfs, and attempting to install both simultaneously, I get an error that package was already added:

$ rpm -e libsysfs
$ rpm -Uvh ./libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.i386.rpm ./libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
warning: package libsysfs = 2.1.0-1.el5 was already added, skipping libsysfs < 2.1.0-1.el5
Preparing...                ########################### [100%]
   1:libsysfs               ########################### [100%]

There are 19 other RPMs that are doing the same thing.

Edit 2

The 32-bit package still won't install. In trying to figure out what is happening, I was able to forcibly install the rpm rpm -Uvh --force libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.i386.rpm and it successfully installed. I can verify that the files listed inside the 32-bit and 64-bit RPM now both exist on the filesystem. However, rpm and yum now both think only the 32-bit version is on the disk:

$ rpm -q libsysfs --qf '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}.%{ARCH}\n
libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.i386

I can successfully erase the 32-bit RPM, but the rpm command now no longer recognizes the 64-bit variant, even though all the files are in place:

$ rpm -e libsysfs.i386
$ rpm -q libsysfs --qf '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}.%{ARCH}\n
package libsysfs is not installed
$ rpm -qpl ./libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
/usr/lib64/libsysfs.so.2
/usr/lib64/libsysfs.so.2.0.1
...
/usr/share/doc/libsysfs-2.1.0/libsysfs.txt

$ ls /usr/lib64/libsysfs.so.2
/usr/lib64/libsysfs.so.2

Rebuilding the RPM database, the libsysfs RPM is still not found.

$ cd /var/lib/rpm
$ rm -f __db*
$ /usr/lib/rpm/rpmdb_verify Packages
$ mv Packages Packages.orig
$ /usr/lib/rpm/rpmdb_dump Packages.orig | /usr/lib/rpm/rpmdb_load Packages
$ /usr/lib/rpm/rpmdb_verify Packages
$ rpm -v --rebuilddb

I'm coming to the conclusion that there must be some sort of RPM database corruption, but have no idea where to go from here.

Edit 3

To try to get a better grasp on what is happening, I erased libsysfs and tried the yum localinstall option, but it still seems like the installer sees the 32-bit and 64-bit options as the same thing:

$ yum localinstall ./libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.x86_64.rpm ./libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.i386.rpm
...
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libsysfs.i386 0:2.1.0-1.el5 set to be updated
---> Package libsysfs.x86_64 0:2.1.0-1.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

===============================================================================
Packages      Arch       Version         Repository                      Size 
===============================================================================
Installing:
 libsysfs     i386       2.1.0-1.el5     /libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.i386      140 k
 libsysfs     x86_64     2.1.0-1.el5     /libsysfs-2.1.0-1.el5.x86_64    141 k

Transaction Summary
===============================================================================
Install      2 Package(s)
Upgrade      0 Package(s)

Total Size: 281 k
...
Running Transaction:
  Installing     : libsysfs                      1/1
Installed products updated.

Installed:
  libsysfs.i386 0:2.1.0-1.el5           libsysfs.x86_64 0:2.1.0-1.el5

Complete!

I notice that everywhere but where it actually does the installation, both architectures are mentioned, but the install still only does one.

Answer 1

It appears that not every 32-bit RPMs is created equal. The only RPMs that give this issue are ones that are directly downloaded from RHN. If I only used RPMs available from the rhel-5-server-rpms repo through yum, everything works. Downloading the 50 or so RPMs that were missing from rhn.redhat.com caused the issue.

In our setup, the downloaded RPMs were forced on the system via anaconda.

Edit

In trying to minimize the issue, it looks like uninstalling every 32-bit RPM, reinstalling the 64-bit/noarch RPMs, then installing the 32-bit RPMs does the trick.

yum erase '*.i386'
yum reinstall '*.x86_64' --exclude=filesystem
yum install '<rpm>.i386'

For some reason, this cleared things up for all but 8 of the RPMs I saw this on.

Answer 2

Try to check your arch support. You said you were on or wanted the x86_64 packages, but you have the i386 package.

An issue might be related to the arch support in "/etc/yum.conf" file. Try to change ->

multilib_policy=all

To ->

multilib_policy=best

Run this:

yum clean all

Then run update your package(s) and install/upgrade desired package.

Also check out this official link:

Yum cache info: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Deployment_Guide/sec-Working_with_Yum_Cache.html

Basic Yum resource: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/sec-Working_with_Packages.html