Upgrading RPM on Linux (for PlayStation®2)

Author: Matthew C. Rich

Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.

v0.20 2002/09/22

Revision History
Revision 0.202002-09-22mcr
second draft
Revision 0.102002-09-22mcr
first draft proposed

Abstract

This document describes the process by which you may upgrade the package management system of your Linux (for PlayStation®2) Kit. The package management system provided with the kit is RPM (v3.0.4), which was created by Red Hat, Inc. for their Red Hat Linux operating systems.


Table of Contents

1. Introduction
1.1. Disclaimer
1.2. Credits / Contributors
1.3. Feedback
1.4. Translations
2. Procedure
3. Back Up Your Critical Data
3.1. Back up your RPM database
3.2. Create A Recovery Path
4. Upgrading RPM
4.1. Downloading the necessary files
4.2. Checking the downloaded files
4.3. Installing the new packages
4.4. Verifying the Installation
5. Repairing a Broken Installation
5.1. The Recovery Process
5.2. Rebuilding your Database from Scratch
6. Copyright and License
6.1. GNU Free Documentation License

1. Introduction

What are the benefits? Newer versions of RPM contain many changes, not the least of which is a new version of Berkeley DB, used for data storage, but also significant changes in the format of RPM packages themselves. Upgrading to a version of RPM greater than 3.0.5 will allow you to install software packages that have been built with the new package format, or require features that exist in newer versions of RPM.

It also provides you with the ability to use APT, [1] which require at least RPM 4.0.2. This utility provides package downloads, automatic dependency resolution, and various other features beyond the scope of RPM.

1.1. Disclaimer

No liability for the contents of this document can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and information at your own risk. This document may contain errors and inaccuracies that could be damaging to your system. Although this is highly unlikely, the author(s) do not take any responsibility for any problems you encounter. Proceed with caution. You have been warned.

All copyrights are held by their by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.

1.2. Credits / Contributors

In this document, I have the pleasure of acknowledging:

1.3. Feedback

Feedback is most certainly welcome for this document. Send your additions, comments and criticisms to the following email address : <mrich (at) users.playstation2-linux.com>.

1.4. Translations

There are currently no translations of this document available.

2. Procedure

Summary

  • Back up all RPM data.

  • Upgrade RPM to the versions provided (Linux (for PlayStation®2)).

  • Convert the RPM data to the new DB format.

  • Verify that your RPM data has been migrated correctly.

3. Back Up Your Critical Data

3.1. Back up your RPM database

It's extremely important that you backup your RPM database before attempting to upgrade RPM on your system. The RPM database contains all metadata corresponding to the installed software on your system, and upgrading from RPM 3.0.4 [2] to RPM 4.0.2 requires upgrading this database. Depending on the current state of your database, this upgrade process could result in corrupting and/or losing data. You have been warned! The good news is that any damage caused during upgrade can be both identified and repaired... provided that you have performed the backup described here.

As root execute the following

example:

       bash#  tar -zcvf /root/rpmdb-`date +%Y%m%d`-backup.tar.gz /var/lib/rpm
      

This will create an archive of your RPM database and store it as /root/rpmdb--backup.tar.gz [3].

3.2. Create A Recovery Path

As root execute the following

bash#  rpm -qa --qf '%{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}.rpm\n' 2>&1 | sort > /root/rpmpkgs-`date +%Y%m%d`.lst

This will create a complete list of all the packages that are currently installed on your system and write it to /root/rpmpkgs-.lst [4].

It is also a good idea to backup the rpm command itself. It will be needed in order to restore the old installation if the upgrade fails. For now it can be copied into /root, along with /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc and /usr/lib/rpm/macros, which are also required.

As root execute the following

example:

bash#  cp -a /bin/rpm /root/rpm 
bash#  cp -a /var/lib/rpm/{rpmrc,macros} /root/ 

4. Upgrading RPM

Now that you are all backed up, you can ... ha! you thought you could fool me... Go back and do the backup! I mean it!

4.1. Downloading the necessary files

Download the rpm files located in the RPM package in this project, they are:

rpm-python-4.0.2-2P.mipsel.rpm

rpm-devel-4.0.2-2P.mipsel.rpm

rpm-build-4.0.2-2P.mipsel.rpm

rpm-4.0.2-2P.mipsel.rpm

popt-1.6.2-2P.mipsel.rpm

Optional Source Code

rpm-4.0.2-2P.src.rpm

4.2. Checking the downloaded files

You should check the validity of the downloaded packages.

bash#  rpm --checksig *.rpm

4.3. Installing the new packages

To install the new RPM packages correctly, you need to perform the following exactly.

bash#  rpm -Uvh rpm-4.0.2-2P.mipsel.rpm rpm-build-4.0.2-2P.mipsel.rpm popt-1.6.2-2P.mipsel.rpm

Immediately after performing the upgrade, you need to rebuild your RPM database with the following command. Do NOT execute any rpm commands between the command above and this command. They must be executed consecutively.

bash#  rpm --rebuilddb

4.4. Verifying the Installation

It is generally a good idea to verify that the upgrade was performed correctly before using the system, or attempting to upgrade or install any new software. Two steps are required to completely verify that the upgrade was successful.

  • Verify the database integrity.
  • Verify the database content.

RPM provides a builtin command to verify the integrity of the database. This will check that the database is working correctly, and is not corrupted. To verify the integrity of the upgraded database, execute the following command.

bash#  rpm --verifydb

If it exits without error, then the upgrade was successful, and you have produced a valid database. If the verification failed, see Section 5 for information on recovering your data.

Although we have validated the database, it may still have lost package file data under certain conditions. To check the contents of the database execute the following with root permissions[5].

bash#  rpm -qa --qf '%{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}.rpm\n' 2>&1 | sort | diff -u /root/ -
bash#  rpm -qal | grep '(contains no files)' | wc -l

The first command should show you the difference in installed packages, which means it should return nothing at all. If there are differences, packages which exist in the new database and not in the rpmpkgs file will have a + preceding the line , and packages that exist in the rpmpkgs file but not in the new database will have a - preceding the line.

The results of the second command should be '1'. If it counts more than one package that contains no files, then your DB has lost some information, see Section 5.

5. Repairing a Broken Installation

5.1. The Recovery Process

Different methods of repair are required depending on the point of failure. Repairing your system also very much depends on whether you performed the backup described at the beginning of this document. If you did not perform this backup, then go away, I can't help you... How many times did I warn you in this document? In other words, you're up the creek. Hope you still have the installation manual handy...

Determine at what point your RPM upgrade failed. The following are likely candidates:

  • Package installation.

  • Database upgrade.

  • Database verification.

  • Content verification.

5.1.1. Failed Package Installation

This failure is fairly easy to fix; if the rpm command failed during execution, simply restore the old RPM packages from the DVD, and submit a bug report to the APT PS2 Linux project page [6] describing any resulting errors. The following will restore RPM from the DVD:

Note:

You will need to mount disc 2 from the Linux Kit. See the other documentation on the PlayStation®2 Linux Community site for instructions. Be sure to mount the DVD as a UDF filesystem.

bash#  cd /mnt/cdrom/SCEI/RPMS 
bash#  rpm -Fvh rpm*.rpm
bash#  rpm -Fvh popt*.rpm

5.1.2. Failed Database Upgrade

This failure is more difficult to fix. It is identified by either a failure during rebuild of the database, or when verifying the database. It generally results in a currupted database (the worst case) or just invalid/missing data. You may even have a fully functional database that produces errors when operated upon. In any of these instances, the database is no longer functional and should be restored from the backup. However (and this is the tricky part): the old database will not work with the new version of RPM that you've installed.

With the backup copy of the RPM (v3.0.4) binary that was made before performing the upgrade, it should be much easier to restore the old version of RPM. Otherwise you'll have to extract the RPM binary from the RPM package on the DVD--not pretty--with rpm2cpio. As it is, only the following is required to restore the system to normalcy:

bash#  cd /mnt/cdrom/SCEI/RPMS 
bash#  /root/rpm -Fvh --force rpm*.rpm
bash#  /root/rpm -Fvh --force popt*.rpm

This may leave some cruft behind from the RPM installation, but it shouldn't matter once the new RPM is properly installed (it's also easy enough to remove entirely).

Now that the original database is restored, and presumably working, it's not a bad idea to verify its integrity. The most likely cause of failure during the upgrade of the database is the content being migrated. Although other causes such as problems with the Berkeley DB libraries themselves or with RPM may exist, there isn't much to do about that except file bug reports.

To verify the database, try running verifydb on it.

bash#  rpm --verifydb 

Alternatively, you can try rebuilding the contents of the database from the source packages. See Section 5.2.

5.2. Rebuilding your Database from Scratch

It is actually surprisingly simple to rebuild your RPM database from scratch. However, it will require a little scripting know-how. This isn't difficult, though, since I've done all the hard work for you. First we will need the list of packages that you created in the Section 3.2 section. It's nearly impossible to exactly restore your RPM database without this information.

To rebuild the contents of your RPM database, simply iterate through the list of packages, installing just the database information from each package as we go. You could install the entire package, but that's unnecessary and a waste of time.

Execute the following with root permissions: [7]

Note:

As before, you will need to mount disc 2 from the Linux kit, see the other documentation on the PlayStation®2 Linux Community site for instructions. Be sure to mount the DVD as a UDF filesystem.

bash#  files=`cat /root/rpmpkgs-.lst` 
bash#  for file in $files; do
>  rpm -ivh --justdb $file
>  done

6. Copyright and License

This document, Upgrading RPM on Linux (for PlayStation®2), is copyrighted (c) 2002 by Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc.. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

6.1. GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.1, March 2000

Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

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[1] http://freshrpms.net/apt/

[2] The Linux (for PlayStation®2) 1.0 release version.

[3] Where is the date the command was executed on.

[4] Where is the date the command was executed on.

[5] Where is the date the command was executed on.

[6] APT PS2 Linux project is the home for this document

[7] Where is the date the command was executed on.