FC5 rpm database corrupt

[Claude Jones]

This is the aftermath of problems described in my thread "FC5 unbootable after 
yesterday's updates" from the past few days. There are some major problems 
with my installation that I can't seem to resolve. I have multiple versions 
of programs listed as installed - for example, if I run Synaptic, it says 
that it detects 92 broken packages; in the list that pops up after clicking 
the "OK" there are multiple programs listed as having multiple versions 
installed. I don't use Synaptic to manage the system, but it's a useful 
diagnostic tool on occasion. I've tried using yum remove and rpm -e to remove 
some of these multiple packages but the system seems to go through the 
removal process in a couple of seconds, and refreshing the list of installed 
packages shows the program version I ostensibly removed, still installed. 
I've tried "rpm --rebuilddb" and "yum clean all". I'm not sure where to go 
with this. It's ironic, because I started with a clean install and the 
intention of keeping the system exceptionally conservative; no additional 
repos were added except the kde-redhat and livna repos. I did not turn on any 
development sections of the repos, yet my system is seemingly more badly 
munged than any I've ever built. 

Suggestions welcome!
-- 
Claude Jones
Brunswick, MD, USA