[KLUG Members] RH 7.3, rpm sefaults when installing, upgrading, erasing

[members@kalamazoolinux.org]

>>Could you wrap of an RPM call that fails with 'strace' and send me the
>>output?
>>ie:  strace rpm -U filename.rpm 2>&1 > strace.log
>>That might provide some insight into what's going wrong.
>Never mind, I figured it out....
>crazy problem... but hey:)  
>The name service cache daemon was not running (nscd)... 

Is it not set to start at boot, or did it crash/die?  If it goes away again
check to see if /var/run/.nscd_socket exists,  it should not if nscd is not
running.  But if nscd abends the socket may remain,  and thusly glibc thinks
nscd is still there to answer queries.... there awaits havoc and mayhem.

Make sure you have the latest nscd as the stability of your entire system rests
upon it,  and until recently it has been the soft spot on the underbelly of the
Linux dragon.  I've seen big beautiful IBM boxes go careening down to earth
because nscd got mumbly-jumbly;  and a crashed IBM is flat out criminal.

If nscd seems hung and you still have an operational console (GO SERIAL
CONSOLES!) you sometimes can yank /var/run/.nscd_socket away with "rm -f" as
root;  definitely a Lazarus class moment.

>I believe that I
>had thought it would not be important, something like that... I started
>that up, and now it's running like a champ...  lots of running around
>trying to figure it out, but hey....
>Thanks, Justin for the help.