Problem:
On RHEL 6 (Santiago), a “yum update” fails with the following error:
Error: failed to retrieve repodata/filelists.xml.gz from rhel-x86_64-server-6
error was [Errno -1] Metadata file does not match checksum
You could try using –skip-broken to work around the problem
You could try running: rpm -Va –nofiles –nodigest
And trying the suggestions above did not help.
Background & Analysis:
Yum uses a cache directory to speed up its operations. Sometimes, the cache could become corrupted.
Solution:
1. Clean the cache directory as shown below:
sudo yum clean all
2. Rebuild the cache directory as shown below:
sudo yum makecache
3. Perform a yum update as shown below:
sudo yum update
Root Cause:
Corrupted yum cache directory
(1) The solution above describes a successful problem-solving experience and may not be applicable to other problems with similar symptoms.
(2) Your rating of this post will be much appreciated as it gives me and others who read this article, an indication of whether this solution has worked for people other than me. Also, feel free to leave comments.
This also fixed the problem of a 404 error while trying to do a “yum update”. The error I received before was a 404 error with details of “failed to retrieve repodata/filelists.xml.gz from rhel-x86_64-server-5”
Thanks!