[Yum] Seg fault / memory error with yum 3.2 on redhat 5.5

[Seth Vidal]

On Tue, 13 Apr 2010, Rob Moser wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> I've got a redhat 5.5 machine which is supposedly up-to-date according
> to RHN (yum-3.2.22-26.el5, python-2.4.3-27.el5). When I try to do
> anything with yum, I get the following error:
>
> ---
> There was a problem importing one of the Python modules
> required to run yum. The error leading to this problem was:
>
>   /usr/lib64/python2.4/lib-dynload/_weakref.so: failed to map segment
> from shared object: Cannot allocate memory
>
> Please install a package which provides this module, or
> verify that the module is installed correctly.
>
> It's possible that the above module doesn't match the
> current version of Python, which is:
> 2.4.3 (#1, Jun 11 2009, 14:09:37)
> [GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)]
>
> If you cannot solve this problem yourself, please go to
> the yum faq at:
>  http://yum.baseurl.org/wiki/Faq
> ---
>
> RHN verifies both the python and yum packages as correct, and as near as
> I can tell the version of yum I have (yum-3.2.22-26.el5) should work
> fine with the version of python (python-2.4.3-27.el5). What's more, I
> have a separate brand new redhat machine with exactly the same versions
> of the software installed, and yum works fine on that machine. If I
> import the yum library into python myself I get a segmentation fault:
>
> ---
> # python -vv
> import zipimport # builtin
> import site # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/site.pyc
> import os # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/os.pyc
> import posix # builtin
> import posixpath # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/posixpath.pyc
> import stat # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/stat.pyc
> import errno # builtin
> import UserDict # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/UserDict.pyc
> import copy_reg # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/copy_reg.pyc
> import types # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/types.pyc
> import japanese # directory /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/japanese
> import japanese # precompiled from
> /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/japanese/__init__.pyc
> import japanese.aliases # directory
> /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/japanese/aliases
> import japanese.aliases # precompiled from
> /usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/japanese/aliases/__init__.pyc
> import encodings # directory /usr/lib64/python2.4/encodings
> import encodings # precompiled from
> /usr/lib64/python2.4/encodings/__init__.pyc
> import codecs # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/codecs.pyc
> import _codecs # builtin
> import encodings.aliases # precompiled from
> /usr/lib64/python2.4/encodings/aliases.pyc
> import warnings # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/warnings.pyc
> import linecache # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/linecache.pyc
> import encodings.utf_8 # precompiled from
> /usr/lib64/python2.4/encodings/utf_8.pyc
> Python 2.4.3 (#1, Jun 11 2009, 14:09:37)
> [GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)] on linux2
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> dlopen("/usr/lib64/python2.4/lib-dynload/readline.so", 2);
> import readline # dynamically loaded from
> /usr/lib64/python2.4/lib-dynload/readline.so
>
>>>> import yum
> [vast swathes of successful imports snipped for space reasons]
> import bisect # precompiled from /usr/lib64/python2.4/bisect.pyc
> dlopen("/usr/lib64/python2.4/lib-dynload/_bisect.so", 2);
> import _bisect # dynamically loaded from
> /usr/lib64/python2.4/lib-dynload/_bisect.so
> # trying cookielib.so
> # trying cookielibmodule.so
> # trying cookielib.py
> # trying cookielib.pyc
> # trying /usr/lib64/python24.zip/cookielib.so
> # trying /usr/lib64/python24.zip/cookielibmodule.so
> # trying /usr/lib64/python24.zip/cookielib.py
> # trying /usr/lib64/python24.zip/cookielib.pyc
> # trying /usr/lib64/python2.4/cookielib.so
> # trying /usr/lib64/python2.4/cookielibmodule.so
> # trying /usr/lib64/python2.4/cookielib.py
> # /usr/lib64/python2.4/cookielib.pyc matches
> /usr/lib64/python2.4/cookielib.py
> Segmentation fault
> ---
>
> I've tried googling round but can't find anyone else having a similar
> problem; anyone have any suggestions? Thanks for any help,
>

run an:

rpm -Va

just for grins to see what else turns up 'odd'.

thanks,
-sv