Some details. If I add the `print' below to /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/sqlitesack.py: class YumAvailablePackageSqlite(YumAvailablePackage): ... def returnSimple(self, varname): ... c.execute(query) r = c.fetchone() self.simple[varname] = r[0] if varname == 'basepath': print "db query for %s returned %s\n" % (varname, r[0]) it prints this: [root@relay ~]# yum install amanda Loading "installonlyn" plugin Setting up Install Process Setting up repositories Reading repository metadata in from local files Parsing package install arguments Resolving Dependencies --> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait. ---> Downloading header for amanda to pack into transaction set. db query for basepath returned media://1161131669.029329#4 media://1161131669.029329%234/Fedora/RPMS/amanda-2.5.0p2-4.i386.rpm: [Errno 4] IOError: <urlopen error unknown url type: media> Trying other mirror. Error: failed to retrieve Fedora/RPMS/amanda-2.5.0p2-4.i386.rpm from core error was [Errno 4] IOError: <urlopen error unknown url type: media> [root@relay ~]# So, in the bad case, it's getting the media://... out of the database. How do I verify that the sqlite database is OK? Can it be rebuilt? I've done "yum clean all" and uninstalled yum (actually, anything with yum in the name) and reinstalled (with rpm). Same deal. The thought of going back to just rpm is a deal killer for me.