I agree totally! The problem is with rpm. It refuses to install a non i386 rpm. I have verified this by downloading the latest kernel rpm. I had to use --ignorearch flag to get rpm to install it. Now how do I get this flag to yum? I have exactarch=0 in /etc/yum.conf which I presumed was to fix this. It does not work. I have tried to pass this flag via /root/.rpmmacros with no help. So, why do only myself apparently have this problem? One other item. I made *no* changes to any yum files after installation except the addition of (maybe) rpmforge. One kernel was updated around this time. My guess is the problem started around the update to 5.1. Anybody have any input as to why at least one person does not have this problem? What could he have that is different from me regarding yum and rpm? Reading this I apologize for the ramble.
Oct 10 09:14:15 Installed: kernel.i686 2.6.18-8.1.14.el5 Last kernel update. A lot of activity Oct 12-15. Possible 5.1 update during this period.
Well, exactarch=0 might work around this from a yum standpoint (as far as downloading the updates), but if RPM is complaining this is beyond the control of yum. As someone else mentioned, taking a look at your ~/.rpmmacros file would be interesting.
Also, could you post the output of:
rpm -q --queryformat '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}.%{ARCH}\n' kernel
Ray