Rpmdb: damaged header

[vaclavk (Vaclav Keil)]

Hi,
I’m receiving these error messages while updating. Also cannot rpm --rebuilddb.
Can you please tell me what’s wrong and maybe how to fix this one?
This one could coincide with this one: https://ask.fedoraproject.org/t/fedora-32-loading-nouveau-and-not-nvidia-drivers/7802/6
(the main issue is that F33 is not working with the secondary display after latest automatical update - driver nVidia 3:460.39-1.fc33).

# dnf update --best --allowerasing

warning: Found bdb Packages database while attempting sqlite backend: using bdb backend.
warning: Found bdb Packages database while attempting sqlite backend: using bdb backend.
error: rpmdb: damaged header #5862 retrieved -- skipping.
error: rpmdb: damaged header #5854 retrieved -- skipping.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:30:38 ago on Wed 10 Feb 2021 01:52:04 PM CET.
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!

# mv /var/lib/rpm/__db.00* /tmp
# rpm --rebuilddb
warning: Converting database from bdb to sqlite backend
error: cannot open Packages index using bdb - Permission denied (13)

Also tried this guide:
https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/how-to-set-nvidia-as-primary-gpu-on-optimus-based-laptops/

[mattdm (Matthew Miller)]

@vaclavk

# mv /var/lib/rpm/__db.00* /tmp
# rpm --rebuilddb
warning: Converting database from bdb to sqlite backend
error: cannot open Packages index using bdb - Permission denied (13)

I’m not quite sure what’s going on there, but I’d suggest as next step to boot from a LiveCD, mount the filesystem and chroot into it, and run rebuilddb from there. (See below)

[vgaetera (Vladislav Grigoryev)]

Did you upgrade from a previous Fedora release?
Fedora 33 should use SQLite by default:
Changes/Sqlite Rpmdb - Fedora Project Wiki

[vaclavk (Vaclav Keil)]

Yes, I did. And thanks for shedding some light on it.

[mattdm (Matthew Miller)]

Wait, no, I think I’ve found it: 1898299 – [abrt] rpm: db_create(): rpm killed by SIGBUS

This is a side-effect of bug 1461313. Update to selinux-policy-3.14.6-30.fc33, run ‘restorecon -Rv /var/lib/rpm’ and then ‘rpmdb --rebuilddb’ to finish it all off.

[vaclavk (Vaclav Keil)]

Thank you for that fast response. Will try to create a new bootable F33 USB stick.

[mattdm (Matthew Miller)]

I think you should be able to do the above (restorecon before rebuilddb) without resorting to a live cd. Although that would still be my next step if that doesn’t work, and it’s handy to have around anyway.