[lug] glibc and yum update woes

[D. Stimits]

I ran yum check-update and found it wants to update glibc-devel and 
glibc-headers on FC4. Unfortunately, trying to update results in 
dependency errors and it won't let me do it, nor can I figure out what I 
can remove without harming the system (looks like several glibc versions):
///////////////////////////////
# yum check-update
...
glibc-devel.i386                         2.3.5-10.3 
updates-released
glibc-headers.i386                       2.3.5-10.3 
updates-released
///////////////////////////////

Then:
# yum update glibc-devel glibc-headers
Setting up Update Process
Setting up repositories
extras                    100% |=========================| 1.1 kB    00:00
base                      100% |=========================| 1.1 kB    00:00
http://fedora.arcticnetwork.ca/updates/4/i386/repodata/repomd.xml: 
[Errno 4] IOError: HTTP Error 404: Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:37:29 GMT
Server: Apache/2.0.54 (FreeBSD) PHP/4.3.11
Content-Length: 242
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Trying other mirror.
updates-released          100% |=========================|  951 B    00:00
extras-development        100% |=========================| 1.1 kB    00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Excluding Packages in global exclude list
Finished
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package glibc-headers.i386 0:2.3.5-10.3 set to be updated
---> Package glibc-devel.i386 0:2.3.5-10.3 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
--> Processing Dependency: glibc = 2.3.5-10.3 for package: glibc-headers
--> Processing Dependency: glibc = 2.3.5-10.3 for package: glibc-devel
--> Restarting Dependency Resolution with new changes.
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package glibc.i386 0:2.3.5-10.3 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
--> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) for package: gtk2
--> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) for package: libwnck
--> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) for package: cairo
--> Processing Dependency: glibc-common = 2.3.5-10.3 for package: glibc
--> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) for package: lirc
--> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) for package: gnutls
--> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) for package: libsoup
--> Processing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) for package: glib2
--> Processing Conflict: glibc-common conflicts glibc < 2.3.90
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) is needed by package gtk2
Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) is needed by package libwnck
Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) is needed by package cairo
Error: Missing Dependency: glibc-common = 2.3.5-10.3 is needed by 
package glibc
Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) is needed by package lirc
Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) is needed by package gnutls
Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) is needed by package libsoup
Error: Missing Dependency: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4) is needed by package glib2
Error: glibc-common conflicts with glibc < 2.3.90
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


Well, here are the existing glibc installs on this FC4 machine:
glibc-2.3.5-10
glibc-2.3.90-8
glibc-common-2.3.5-10
glibc-common-2.3.90-8
glibc-devel-2.3.5-10
glibc-headers-2.3.5-10
glibc-kernheaders-2.4-9.1.94


I know FC4 has a compat gcc compiler, perhaps that's what the reason is 
for the offbeat versions. But, I can't update via yum, nor by regular 
rpm (I could force, but we all know the bug monster will eat me if I 
force glibc).

An attempt to directly update glibc-common and glibc-devel and 
glibc-headers via rpm on a single command line fails:
# rpm -Uvh glibc-*
error: Failed dependencies:
         glibc > 2.3.5 conflicts with glibc-common-2.3.5-10.3.i386
         glibc = 2.3.5-10.3 is needed by glibc-devel-2.3.5-10.3.i386
         glibc = 2.3.5-10.3 is needed by glibc-headers-2.3.5-10.3.i386
         glibc-common = 2.3.5-10 is needed by (installed) 
glibc-2.3.5-10.i686
         glibc-common = 2.3.90-8 is needed by (installed) 
glibc-2.3.90-8.i686


It seems that the FC4 rpm's are pretty mucked up right now, and it 
breaks yum. As far as the HTTP error above goes, it's because that 
repository doesn't have the directory it is asking for...or at least 
every single update has a repo error from a server that lacks a 
particular directory. I can't figure out where yum is getting this 
mirror url from, I'd like to remove it but can't. That aside, I still 
need a way to update glibc. I'm thinking of copying to another disk, and 
then forcing update on the copy...if it doesn't work throw the copy 
away. Has anyone here with FC4 run into these errors too, or have a 
workaround to get yum working again? I realize the rpm specs of the 
updated files are probably broken and in need of a bug report, but I 
really hate doing this, it takes forever and I get a lot of negative 
reactions if I can't point out exactly what is wrong.

D. Stimits, stimits AT comcast DOT net