Why yum update fails with "Plugins can't be imported" error ?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 and onwards
  • Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM)

Issue

  • yum update fails with the following error :-
# yum update
Plugin "product-id" can't be imported
Plugin "subscription-manager" can't be imported
Unable to find Subscription Manager module.
Error: cannot import name init_dep_injection

Resolution

  • Install missing m2crypto package on system and upgraded yum-rhn-plugin package on affected system.
  • Re install yum and subscription-manager package.
  • Remove all the duplicate packages (if present) as mentioned in the Diagnostic Steps.

Root Cause

  • Red Hat supplied m2crypto package missing on system which caused this error.
  • Presense of duplicate packages on the system.
  • Subscription manager-related files are modified.

Diagnostic Steps

  • Collect following details from affected system:
$ strace -fxvto /tmp/strace.out yum update
  • Check whether there are any files listed as modified or missing in the output of the following command:
# rpm -V yum subscription-manager
  • If so, then download the yum and subscription-manager packages from RHN and reinstall them manually :
# rpm --replacepkgs -vh yum-x.x.x.y.y.noarch.rpm subscription-manager-x.x.yy-x.x.x.rpm
  • Run the following command to scan the rpm database for any other duplicates as well:
# package-cleanup --dupes
  • If the output looks correct, then remove the old versions of these duplicates with:
# package-cleanup --cleandupes
  • Component
  • yum

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