[BusyBox] "rpm" fails with SIGSEGV

[Robert P. J. Day]

  ok, now that i'm past the loader problem i had before, i'd like to 
figure out how to install an arbitrary rpm file.  i've searched the 
mailing list archives but found nothing on this topic.

  i added "rpm" support to my BB install, and for examples of
some PPC rpms, i downloaded a pile from www.denx.de --
among them, apache, so just for the fun of it, i thought i'd test
installing apache on this evaluation board (RPX850L with a
timesys BSP).

  via an NFS mount, i got access to the RPM file, and tried 
"rpm -i", but that failed with "file name too long", which was true,
as the actual RPM file name was apache-ppc_8xx...  you get the
idea.

  so i renamed it simply to apache.rpm.  even with that name, 
i could "rpm -qpi" and "rpm -qpl".  but when i tried to install, i
immediately got SIGSEGV.

  the RPM files i downloaded to test on are theoretically compatible
with this board.  so, any thoughts here?  at the moment, there is
no RPM infrastructure on the board -- /var/lib/rpm does not exist,
that sort of thing.  do i have to do some preliminary setup before i
can install my first rpm?

slowly making progress,
rday