Cannot use neither rpm nor yum. Error message

[Sam Varshavchik]

David Desscan writes:

> I cannot use neither yum nor rpm after I compiled and installed 
> openssl-0.9.8.  I did the following before make install:
> 
> rpm -e --nodeps openssl
> rpm -e --nodeps openssl-devel
> make install
> 
> when I use rpm I get the following error message:
> 
> rpm: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.5 : cannot open 
> shared object file: No such file or directory

And every time I warn someone against the bright idea of manually compiling 
and installing your own stuff, instead of using rpm to install all software 
on your system, some testosterone-laded ubergeek always begins mouthing off 
how compiling your own stuff and installing it is always better than 
installing pre-condigured rpm packages, and how he can use better 
configuration and optimization options than everyone else, and how he never 
had any problems.

> Is there any way to resolve this problem?  I tried reboot with my 
> installation CD but it does not give me the option to choose
> packages.  I thought of reinstalling openssl from the CD.  I remember with
> redhat 9 there was an option firstboot, which I once used to add 
> packages.

Stop.  The worst thing you can do when you find yourself in a middle of such 
a mess, is to make random attempts to fix it, without fully understanding 
what's broken on a fundamental level.  You'll just make a bigger mess.

The good news is that you did not just scribble over your existing files, 
you blew away the entire openssl package.  Strangely enough, that might 
actually help.

Try this: just boot the installation CD, and tell it to upgrade an existing 
system.  In upgrade mode, there's a good chance that the openssl package 
will get reinstalled automatically.

If that does not work, you have two more options to try:

1) Grab a Knoppix rescue CD, and see if it has a statically-linked 
version of the rpm binary that you can copy over to the hard drive, reboot, 
and use the statically-linked rpm binary to reinstall the openssl package.

2) Copy the /lib/libssl.so.5 file from another box running Fedora.

> An end user from ittoolbox forum suggested that I use rpm2cpio.  My 
> question is how is it that so many utilities depend on this libssl.so.5 
> file to function?

Because encryption is GOOD.  Once RSA's patents expired, it made it possible 
to easily add encryption to most software with very little effort, and there 
is no reason NOT to.

>                     How many utilities and applications depend on this 
> library as a vital component to function?

A lot.

> I tried rpm2cpio but unfortunately I get the same error message as with 
> rpm and Yum.  I tried something else this weekend.  I
>  linked file libssl.a (the library file installed with openssl-0.9.8) to 
> libssl.so.5 but that did not solve the problem as well.

Of course not.  If you do not understand what actually is happening, on the 
fundamental level, making random stabs in the dark is very unlikely to 
improve things, and is very likely to only make things worse.

.so and .a files are completely different beasts, and one is not a 
substitute for the other.

> I am thinking of downloading the source files for openssl-0.9.7f (which 
> was the version supplied with Fedora Core 4)compile and reinstall again.  
> However I doubt whether the libssl.so.5 file will be installed after the 
> make install command.  

Most likely not, and you're likely to screw up your system even further.

Fedora Core 4 i386, I presume?

The libssl.so.5 is not that big.  Only 230kb:

links http://www.courier-mta.com/libssl.so.5

Since you can E-mail, presumably you have some kind of net access, and you 
should be able to download it, in some other way besides wget.

Next time, when you get the urge to start installing stuff, you'll keep your 
urges in check long enough to learn how to use rpm to build and install 
software.

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