There was a problem importing one of the Python modules required to run yum

I had a problem with the server and then yum was not running

root@linux:~ # yum whatprovides libbz2.so.1
There was a problem importing one of the Python modules
required to run yum. The error leading to this problem was:

libbz2.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Please install a package which provides this module, or
verify that the module is installed correctly.

It’s possible that the above module doesn’t match the
current version of Python, which is:
2.4.3 (#1, Aug 29 2011, 10:55:55)
[GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-51)]

If you cannot solve this problem yourself, please go to
the yum faq at:

http://wiki.linux.duke.edu/YumFaq

I ran python manually and tried to import the module

root@linux:~ # python
Python 2.4.3 (#1, Aug 29 2011, 10:55:55)
[GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-51)] on linux2
Type “help”, “copyright”, “credits” or “license” for more information.
>>> import yum
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 1, in ?
File “/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py”, line 23, in ?
import rpm
File “/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/rpm/__init__.py”, line 7, in ?
from _rpm import *
ImportError: libbz2.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Seeing other server, I needed this two files

root@other_linux:~ # find / -name libbz2.so.1
/usr/lib/libbz2.so.1
/usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1

Which are a link

root@linux:~ # ls -l /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 14 11:09 /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1 -> libbz2.so.1.0.3
root@linux:~ # ls -l /usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 14 11:10 /usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1 -> libbz2.so.1.0.3

They didn’t exist in the server

root@other_linux:~ # ls -l /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.3
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 71852 Sep 20 2010 /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.3
root@other_linux:~ # ls -l /usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1.0.3
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 67792 Sep 20 2010 /usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1.0.3

root@linux:~ # ls -l /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.3
ls: /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.3: No such file or directory
root@linux:~ # ls -l /usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1.0.3
ls: /usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1.0.3: No such file or directory

The package bzip2-libs provide the files. Download it and install the package with rpm and try to run yum again

root@other_linux:~ # yum whatprovides /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.3
Loaded plugins: downloadonly, rhnplugin, security
Importing additional filelist information
repository/filelists_db | 40 MB 00:04
bzip2-libs-1.0.3-3.i386 : Libraries for applications using bzip2
Repo : repository
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.3

bzip2-libs-1.0.3-6.el5_5.i386 : Libraries for applications using bzip2
Repo : repository
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.3

bzip2-libs-1.0.3-4.el5_2.i386 : Libraries for applications using bzip2
Repo : repostory
Matched from:
Filename : /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.3

bzip2-libs-1.0.3-6.el5_5.i386 : Libraries for applications using bzip2
Repo : repository
Matched from:
Other : Provides-match: /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.3