yum --installroot: AttributeError: 'rpm.prob' object has no attribute 'startswith'

[Andres Gomez (Tanty)]

Trying to create a Fedora Core 18 chroot with "yum" for Quantal x86_64.

Following similar steps to the ones described in:
http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=385

Previous steps:

~$ apt-get install yum rpm python-m2crypto
...
~$ mkdir -p /tmp/fc18/var/lib/rpm
...
~$ rpm --root /tmp/fc18 --initdb
...
~$ wget -c http://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/fedora/linux/releases/18/Fedora/x86_64/os/Packages/f/fedora-release-18-1.noarch.rpm
...
~$ rpm -ivh --force-debian --nodeps --root /tmp/fc18 fedora-release-18-1.noarch.rpm
...

When executing:

~$ yum --installroot /tmp/fc18/ install yum

It ends with the error:

"
...
     AttributeError: 'rpm.prob' object has no attribute 'startswith'
...
"

This error is actually also described in:
http://fmtyewtk.blogspot.fi/2012/05/installing-fedora-17-from-ubuntu-pain.html

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "Patch to use internal _str string in rpm transaction object" of this bug report has been identified as being a patch. The ubuntu-reviewers team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review the patch. In the event that this is in fact not a patch you can resolve this situation by removing the tag 'patch' from the bug report and editing the attachment so that it is not flagged as a patch. Additionally, if you are member of the ubuntu-reviewers team please also unsubscribe the team from this bug report.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by Brian Murray. Please contact him regarding any issues with the action taken in this bug report.]

[Mike Miller (mtmiller)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, I am closing it because the bug has been fixed in the latest development version of Ubuntu - Raring Ringtail.

If you need a fix for the bug in previous versions of Ubuntu, please follow the instructions for "Requesting a Backport" at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBackports#Requesting_a_Backport

[Tamas Papp (tomposmiko)]

This bug still exist in Saucy.
Applying the patch produces:

Total size: 65 M
Downloading Packages:
Running rpm_check_debug
ERROR You need to update rpm to handle:
rpmlib(X-CheckUnifiedSystemdir) is needed by setup-2.8.57-1.fc18.noarch
rpmlib(X-CheckUnifiedSystemdir) is needed by filesystem-3.1-2.fc18.x86_64
Complete!
(1, [u'RPM needs to be updated'])

[Mike Miller (mtmiller)]

Hi Tamas, I do not see this bug in Ubuntu 13.10. Can you list exactly what commands you are running and what error messages you see that indicate that this bug is still present?

The information I have says that this bug was fixed upstream in yum version 3.2.26. I've also just rerun the OP's example without seeing this error.

Are you sure you did not mean to post to bug #1200288?

[Tamas Papp (tomposmiko)]

I don't know, why I write Saucy.
On Saucy it works fine.

I get the error on Precise.

Sorry about the mess again..:/

[Mike Miller (mtmiller)]

Ok, thanks for clarifying.

As I said in comment #3, if you need a fix for the bug in previous versions of Ubuntu, please follow the instructions for "Requesting a Backport" at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBackports#Requesting_a_Backport.