I've invoked this error MANY times on my own system, although I seem to
catch it quicker when someone else is having the problem.  I'm the same way
with programming: I can spot a missing semicolon a mile away in someone
else's code, but miss it consistently in my own!

Gene

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net
> [mailto:owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of Jonathan Hutchins
> Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 12:13 PM
> To: kclug@kclug.org
> Subject: Re: more info Re: failed install of KDE 3
>
>
> > > I tried what you said.  The command
> > > rpm -e kdegames3-3.0.1-1mdk
>
> > > Got me the following error.
>
> > > error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - Operation not
> > > permitted (1) error: cannot open /var/lib/rpm/packages.rpm
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gene Dascher" <gedascher@multiservice.com>
>
> > Run this same command as root.  You don't have permission to add/delete
> from
> > the RPM database as a regular user.
>
> Good catch, Gene.  although it does say "Operation not permitted", I would
> probably have gone looking for a corrupted database.  It never occurred to
> me that he wouldn't be running as root.
>
> I think the error message could be more explicit, unless maybe it's an
> intentional "security by obscurity" choice.
>
>
>
>