[CentOS] "Can't install ... as no transaction" from PackageKit (CentOS 6)

Wed Jan 30 13:48:00 UTC 2013
Toralf Lund <toralf.lund at pgs.com>

Hello again,

Does anyone have any idea what the following message in the package 
installer - gpk-install-local-file - is supposed to mean?

Can't install /tmp/mail-notification-4.0-3.el5.x86_64.rpm as no transaction

(Under "More details" in the "Local install failed" popup.)

This is something I got while trying to set up a "mail notification" 
icon - refer to my other recent post. I happen to know what (part of) 
the problem is - the package has dependencies that can't be resolved, 
but why doesn't the message just say so? And what's the meaning of a 
"transaction" anyway? Mind you, I believe I understand the word 
perfectly well, but in the above sentence it still makes no sense to me...

To reproduce this, you may try (on a CentOS 6) system:

 1. In a web browser, go to
    http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/5/x86_64/repoview/mail-notification.html
    or
    http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/5/i386/repoview/mail-notification.html
    depending on your architecture.
 2. Click on the rpm link.
 3. Select "Open with"->"Package Installer (default)".
 4. Answer "Install" when asked if you want to install the file (after
    it's downloaded.)
 5. Click "More details" when the error popup appears.

I suspect, though, that you may actually see a sensible "dependency" 
message, i.e. that this is sometimes correctly displayed, sometimes not.

- Toralf


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