error: no dbpath has been set

I've recently been having trouble with a OpenVZ VPS upgraded from CentOS4 to CentOS5, here's what I'm seeing when trying to rum a yum install of mod_python:

[root@coffee ~]# yum install mod_python

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror

error: no dbpath has been set

error: cannot open Packages database in /%{_dbpath}

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “/usr/bin/yum”, line 29, in ?

yummain.user_main(sys.argv[1:], exit_code=True)

File “/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py”, line 309, in user_main

errcode = main(args)

File “/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py”, line 157, in main

base.getOptionsConfig(args)

File “/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py”, line 187, in getOptionsConfig

self.conf

File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py”, line 664, in </div>

conf = property(fget=lambda self: self._getConfig(),

File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py”, line 239, in _getConfig

self._conf = config.readMainConfig(startupconf)

File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/config.py”, line 804, in readMainConfig

yumvars[‘releasever'] = _getsysver(startupconf.installroot, startupconf.distroverpkg)

File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/config.py”, line 877, in _getsysver

idx = ts.dbMatch(‘provides', distroverpkg)

TypeError: rpmdb open failed

Here's how to fix it:

[root@coffee ~]# rm /dev/urandom

rm: remove regular file `/dev/urandom'? y

[root@coffee ~]# mknod -m 644 /dev/urandom c 1 9

Nothing else seems to work, but this does indeed seem to solve the problem.

Perhaps I’ll finally get Trac installed…