[CentOS] Yum loses memory when kernel is upgraded

[Phil Schaffner]

Jussi Hirvi wrote:
> Jim Perrin (jperrin at gmail.com) kirjoitteli (4.11.2008 15:23):
>> You (and your /etc/redhat-release) say 5.2, but your kernel says 5.1
>> (5.2 shipped with 2.6.18-92)
> 
> Hm, ok. 
> 
> "yum update kernel" did not see anything to update (that's just because the
> present problem: kernel was not listed in the rpm dbs). So I did "yum list
> kernel" and based on that, "yum install kernel.i686".
> 
> This time the kernel update did not erase the rpm db's (or whatever
> happened, on two kernel updates before this).
> 
> So it seems that my system is now cured, at least for now... Don't know why.
> :-)

Sounds like your RPM database was corrupted.  If so, there may well be 
other problems lurking.  I'd try:

rm /var/lib/rpm/__*
rpm --rebuilddb
yum update

Should not hurt, and may well help avoid other problems.

Phil