Tips and tricks: Why do I receive an error after updating to Red Hat Enterprise 3 update 4 using up2date?

Release Found: Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 3, Update 4

Symptom:
After doing a complete update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Update 4, any further attempts to run up2date result in the following error:

# up2date --dry-run
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/sbin/up2date", line 1174, in ?
    sys.exit(main() or 0)
  File "/usr/sbin/up2date", line 668, in main
    up2dateAuth.updateLoginInfo()
  File "up2dateAuth.py", line 151, in updateLoginInfo
  File "up2dateAuth.py", line 105, in login
  File "up2dateAuth.py", line 49, in maybeUpdateVersion
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/up2dateUtils.py", line 228,
    in getVersion
    release, version = getOSVersionAndRelease()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/up2dateUtils.py", line 221,
    in getOSVersionAndRelease
    raise up2dateErrors.RpmError(
up2date_client.up2dateErrors.RpmError: RPM error.  The message was:
Could not determine what version of Red Hat Linux you are running.
If you get this error, try running

                rpm --rebuilddb

Solution:

Additional articles in the Red Hat Knowledgebase provide information on how to remove the locks from the RPM database.

You will need to either download the redhat-release package for your system from Red Hat Network (RHN) or if the RPM package is available install it from the /var/spool/up2date directory with the command:

# rpm -Uvh /var/spool/up2date/redhat-release*.rpm

You may have to add the --nodeps option to the above command if the provided options fails to execute.

Finally, sync your system profile with Red Hat Network:

# up2date -p

Once these steps are completed, the system will be able continue to update from Red Hat Network.

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