Updating 7.3 to 7.4, had aborts, now seem to have some mix of both versions?

[rusty]

I was trying to update from Centos 7.3 to 7.4 after a long period of no updates. Had some problems with the Centos Base repo, had some failed/aborted attempts. Now seem to have some mix of 7.3 and 7.4 packages.
I have tried some iterations of:
rpm -ivh --replacepkgs --replacefiles 7-4.1708.el7.centos.rpm
but can't seem to get the syntax of the package name correct. Help? Is this even the right approach?

Machine still boots, but locks up randomly, forcing restart. File transfers keep dropping out.
I fixed some Known Issues including eg. libgpod version in EPEL, etc.

Current state of yum update progress:

yum update
...
dependencies resolved, installing files, etc...
...
python-linux-procfs noarch 0.4.9-3.el7 base 33 k
python-schedutils x86_64 0.4-6.el7 base 21 k
python2-pyroute2 noarch 0.4.13-1.el7 epel 345 k
squashfs-tools x86_64 4.3-0.21.gitaae0aff4.el7 base 101 k
webkitgtk4 x86_64 2.14.7-3.el7 updates 20 M
webkitgtk4-jsc x86_64 2.14.7-3.el7 updates 4.0 M
webkitgtk4-plugin-process-gtk2 x86_64 2.14.7-3.el7 updates 8.7 M
xmlsec1 x86_64 1.2.20-7.el7_4 updates 177 k
xmlsec1-openssl x86_64 1.2.20-7.el7_4 updates 76 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 13 Packages (+63 Dependent packages)
Upgrade 836 Packages

Total size: 1.0 G
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
Running transaction check
Running transaction test


Transaction check error:
file /boot/extlinux/cat.c32 conflicts between attempted installs of syslinux-extlinux-4.05-13.el7.x86_64 and syslinux-5.10-1.el7.rfx.x86_64
file /boot/extlinux/chain.c32 conflicts between attempted installs of syslinux-extlinux-4.05-13.el7.x86_64 and syslinux-5.10-1.el7.rfx.x86_64
file /boot/extlinux/cmd.c32 conflicts between attempted installs of syslinux-extlinux-4.05-13.el7.x86_64 and syslinux-5.10-1.el7.rfx.x86_64
file /boot/extlinux/config.c32 conflicts between attempted installs of syslinux-extlinux-4.05-13.el7.x86_64 and syslinux-5.10-1.el7.rfx.x86_64
file /boot/extlinux/...

Not sure how to proceed from here. Any suggestions greatly appreciated!!!

[avij]

syslinux-5.10-1.el7.rfx.x86_64

That sounds like RepoForge.. Please do not use that repository.

See also: viewtopic.php?t=48512

[rusty]

OK, I deleted the RepoForge entries from my system. I was then able to restart yum update. It ran a while but then crashed before finishing. After restart, there is a new image to choose from: (3.10.0-693.11.6.el7/x86_64) 7 (Core) Unfortunately, it's corrupt and hangs / panics immediately.
More unfortunately, I now have a more immediate problem. Somehow this event has affected the two prior images I have. I can start them and enter my LUKS encryption password, but then my keyboard and mouse lock, with the cursor in the center of the '7' wallpaper, and I can not move it or type. The User ID password screen never appears, so I'm stuck. The whole system seems pretty corrupt at this point and I'll probably just start over, but if anyone has seen this behavior before I would like to try and recover it. I have been using this image for a couple of years and have a lot of time invested...

Thanks again for any help!

[avij]

Crashing in the middle of a "yum update" is not a particularly safe thing.

Random crashes and locking up sound like hardware problems to me, especially if those happen under load ("yum update" is fairly intensive). Try running some sort of a stress test on your system, like memtest86. I think memtest86 is available on CentOS .iso images in the Troubleshooting menu or thereabouts.

You could also try booting in text mode.

[TrevorH]

What's the output from package-cleanup --dupes ? If there is any then you probably have to clean up your system before you continue.