Installing RealPlayer RPM trashed RPM database! How to fix?

[Lamar Owen]

On Saturday 08 November 2003 08:52 pm, James J. Ramsey wrote:
> I found that I can easily trash the RPM database with
> two commands:

> LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.19 rpm -Uvh \
> rp8_linux20_libc6_i386_cs2_rpm

Why did you do the LD_ASSUME_KERNEL during the rpm installation?  Wouldn't 
that break the NPTL RPM stuff, creating the corruption?

The LD_ASSUME_KERNEL would only apply when actually running rp8, no? 

Asking that RPM be resilient from this maluse would be like asking Unix to not 
delete the whole filesystem when executing as root 'rm -rf /' .

LD_ASSUME_KERNEL is a powerful sledgehammer of a tool that, in this case 
corrupted the rpm database.    This tool isn't meant to be used willy-nilly, 
as you found out the hard way.
-- 
Lamar Owen
Director of Information Technology
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC  28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu