>>rpm has commands to rebuild or initiate the rpm database to fix errors like 
>>this.  My guess is that Kylix hasn't been updated to work properly with rpm4.
>>
>>man rpm
>>
>>rpm --initdb
>>or
>>rpm --rebuilddb
>>
>>
>>>I don't know how to recover from this, other than a
>>>full install.  Any suggestions?

> redhat 8.0 would require...
> 
> pkill rpm
> 
> rm /var/lib/rpm/__*.db
> 
> rpm --rebuilddb

Yep.  Didn't think about those steps, though RH8 wouldn't be the only distro 
that would require that to reinitialize the RPM database.

> BUT
> 
> I think that there is a problem with installing packages built for rpm
> -v3 with rpm -v4
> 
> is it an older version of kylix?

Hmm, Borlands own website says that Mandrake 9 is a Certified Distro from them 
for Kylix 3, so I guess it wouldn't be on old version.  I wonder what is wrong 
since they list RH7.2, MK8.2 and Suse 7.3 as Supported.

http://www.borland.com/kylix/pdf/kyl3_sysreqs.pdf