[CentOS] Yum update corrupted something badly - can only get access through SSH terminal or Webmin

[Lanny Marcus]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 12:48 PM, Dan Roberts <dan at jlazyh.com> wrote:
> thanks for the details - As the server lives in a closet without a
> monitor on it or even easy access I opted for Webmin so as to have the
> ability to get in and work with it.

There are other ways you can get into a headless server or a server
that is remote to your location. SSH for example.

> I will resubscribe and get back into a better habit - I had been
> checking every day a year ago, and then life got busy.

If you subscribe to this mailing list and read the messages, you will
learn a lot. I have.

As someone pointed out, there was an issue with glibc. From the CentOS
5.3 Release Notes:
<http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.3>

4. Known Issues

    * When updating from 5.2 to 5.3 you can run into a problem with
rpm: "rpmdb: unable to lock mutex: Invalid argument". To avoid this
please update glibc before updating the rest of the installation:

      yum clean all && yum update glibc\* && yum update

After you solve the issue(s) you have with the server at this moment,
I suggest that you do some reading on the CentOS Wiki, about how to
begin securing your server.
<http://wiki.centos.org/>