rpmdb: PANIC error, please tell me what it means

[natbrazil]

Hi all,
I received the following cron email error ref my server. My experience level hasn't reached figuring these out Could someone please tell me what it means specifically and does it call for action? if so, what? Thanks very much!

I do understand its a yum update problem. I assume my worse current status is that certain yums aren't suceeding, is that correct?

Nat
2nats AT weblabs.com

error msg follows:
######################
/etc/cron.daily/yum.cron:


rpmdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery
error: db4 error(-30978) from dbenv->open: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - (-30978)
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 30, in ?
yummain.main(sys.argv[1:])
File "/usr/share/yum/yummain.py", line 163, in main
(log, errorlog, filelog, conf, cmds) = parseCmdArgs(args)
File "/usr/share/yum/yummain.py", line 75, in parseCmdArgs
conf=yumconf(configfile=yumconffile)
File "/usr/share/yum/config.py", line 155, in __init__
self.yumvar['releasever'] = self._getsysver()
File "/usr/share/yum/config.py", line 285, in _getsysver
idx = ts.dbMatch('provides', self.distroverpkg)
TypeError: rpmdb open failed
rpmdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery
error: db4 error(-30978) from dbenv->open: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - (-30978)
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 30, in ?
yummain.main(sys.argv[1:])
File "/usr/share/yum/yummain.py", line 163, in main
(log, errorlog, filelog, conf, cmds) = parseCmdArgs(args)
File "/usr/share/yum/yummain.py", line 75, in parseCmdArgs
conf=yumconf(configfile=yumconffile)
File "/usr/share/yum/config.py", line 155, in __init__
self.yumvar['releasever'] = self._getsysver()
File "/usr/share/yum/config.py", line 285, in _getsysver
idx = ts.dbMatch('provides', self.distroverpkg)
TypeError: rpmdb open failed

[macemoneta]

It means that your rpm database (which contains information on the packages you have installed) is corrupted.

To recover, issue these two commands as root (copy/paste them to make sure they are correctly entered):

rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
rpm -vv --rebuilddb

After that completes, you should be OK. More info here at the rpm.org website.

[natbrazil]

thx macemoneta

the first command went thru with no reply, I assum that was normal
the second command caused a bazillion adding of entries to indexes, then closed a bunch of stuff, I assume that was the desired effect?

First, thanks SO much again, greatly appreciated

Is there a way to test the fix via a command?

I also went to rpm.org and read up on it

[macemoneta]

To test the database, simply issue an rpm command:

rpm -q kernel

You should get a response like this (though your specific kernel(s) may be different):

kernel-2.6.10-1.741_FC3
kernel-2.6.10-1.760_FC3

Then rerun the yum update request manually:

yum -y update

The commands should all complete without the nasty error messages that occurred before.

[jknose]

Hi I'm new to Linux, new to Fedora Core 2. I was reading some of the posts because I was having a similar problem trying to run YUM. I tried the fix noted above running:

rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
rpm -vv --rebuilddb

Unfortunately I got the following result:

[root@FedoraMillenium /]# rm -f /var/lib/rpm/_db
[root@FedoraMillenium /]# rpm -vv --rebuilddb
D: rebuilding database /var/lib/rpm into /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.12765
D: creating directory /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.12765
D: opening old database with dbapi 3
D: opening db environment /var/lib/rpm/Packages joinenv
rpmdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery
error: db4 error(-30978) from dbenv->open: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
D: opening db index /var/lib/rpm/Packages rdonly mode=0x0
error: cannot open Packages index
D: removing directory /var/lib/rpmrebuilddb.12765

So just how screwed am I? Anyway to recover?

Thanks in advance for any help anybody can provide.

[jknose]

Never mind. I rebooted and everything is working perfectly.