[CentOS] Hosed by 4.2

[Robert]

Karanbir Singh wrote:

> Hi Robert,
>
> Robert wrote:
>
>>> why did you manually need to install the kernel ? 
>>
>>
>>
>> Because a "yum update kernel" offered to install the -SMP kernel.  
>> This is, no doubt, an artifact of anaconda & associates deciding at 
>> the time CentOS4 was first installed that an SMP kernel was 
>> appropriate for an Athlon XP in an ASUS A7NX8 ver.2 deluxe m/b, 
>> compounded by my packrat reluctance to throw it away at the outset.
>
>
> if you remove the kernel-smp ( which, based on your statement - you 
> dont seem to be using) yum should not update it :) technically, only 
> packages already installed are updated ( or pkgs that satisfy depends 
> for other pkgs ).
>
> Anyway, if anaconda left behind a smp kenel on UP machine, sounds like 
> a bugreport to me.....

Not only leaves it behind but configures GRUB to make SMP the default. 
Drives NTP nuts!  I should be shot for not removing it when I first 
installed CentOS4.  It'll be gone when the smoke clears from my upcoming 
exercise.

>
>> I'm reasonably sure everything is gonna be O.K. Yum is one of the 
>> packages that gets reported twice:
>
>
> sounds like you are going to have a fun filled Monday morning. I 
> forsee rpm and coffee in your immediate future. Be a good idea to 
> backup the rpmdb somewhere. Just in case.
>
> remove everything apart from the Packages file from /var/lib/rpm - 
> then rebuild the db ( rpm -v --rebuilddb ). then try work with the -V 
> option to verify what you have what rpm thinks you have.
>
> - K



Thanks for the advice. My Monday and Tuesday have already been scheduled 
for other joyous tasks, so I'll attack this fiasco Wednesday.  (Now that 
I'm retired, I wonder almost daily how the hell I ever had time to work!)
At any rate, I've already burned /var/lib/rpm to a CD and I'll have a 
brand new full backup by about 3:00 AM Wednesday.