# Rocky Linux 9.x aarch64: bad AppStream repo yaml file?

**URL:** <https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-x-aarch64-bad-appstream-repo-yaml-file/20052>\
**Category:** Rocky Linux Help & Support\
**Tags:** unsupported, rocky-linux-8, rocky-linux-9\
**Created:** [December 14, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-x-aarch64-bad-appstream-repo-yaml-file/20052 "2025-12-14T15:17:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dimitry-unified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@dimitry-unified](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/dimitry-unified)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-x-aarch64-bad-appstream-repo-yaml-file/20052/1 "2025-12-14T15:17:38Z")

</div>

I have a few Rocky Linux 8 and 9 machines, of both x86\_64 and aarch64 architecture, which regularly pull updates using `dnf update`.

Very recently, the Rocky Linux 9 aarch64 machines begin failing with:

`Module yaml error: Parser error`  
`terminate called after throwing an instance of 'libdnf::ModulePackageContainer::ResolveException'`  
` what(): Failed to update from string: Unexpected YAML event in document stream [line 1 col 1]`  
`Aborted`

This is apparently while parsing one of the YAML files of the AppStream repository. That is, when I set `enabled=0` for the `[appstream]` section in `/etc/yum.repos.d/rocky.repo`, the problem disappears.

Full transcript from a docker session:

```auto
% docker run -ti rockylinux:9
[root@a18d3b53294e /]# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Rocky Linux"
VERSION="9.3 (Blue Onyx)"
ID="rocky"
ID_LIKE="rhel centos fedora"
VERSION_ID="9.3"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el9"
PRETTY_NAME="Rocky Linux 9.3 (Blue Onyx)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
LOGO="fedora-logo-icon"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:rocky:rocky:9::baseos"
HOME_URL="https://rockylinux.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.rockylinux.org/"
SUPPORT_END="2032-05-31"
ROCKY_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Rocky-Linux-9"
ROCKY_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="9.3"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Rocky Linux"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="9.3"
[root@a18d3b53294e /]# uname -a
Linux a18d3b53294e 6.12.54-linuxkit #1 SMP Tue Nov 4 21:21:47 UTC 2025 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux
[root@a18d3b53294e /]# dnf update
Rocky Linux 9 - BaseOS 16 MB/s | 7.5 MB 00:00
Rocky Linux 9 - AppStream 24 MB/s | 11 MB 00:00
Rocky Linux 9 - Extras 1.1 kB/s | 17 kB 00:15
Module yaml error: Parser error
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'libdnf::ModulePackageContainer::ResolveException'
  what(): Failed to update from string: Unexpected YAML event in document stream [line 1 col 1]
Aborted

```

Having found a similar issue in [Dnf (yum) suddenly stopped working on RockyLinux 8 machines - Support - TheForeman](https://community.theforeman.org/t/dnf-yum-suddenly-stopped-working-on-rockylinux-8-machines/33350) , I tried using `strace` as they did there:

```auto
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/var/cache/dnf/appstream-056c207c7f3c6316/repodata/c32a428b8b4e706b6fd51aa79ebe336585c3aaf0675b0c18a02a10b7303a3869-modules.yaml.xz", O_RDONLY) = 8
fstat(8, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=8596, ...}) = 0
..
write(2, "Module yaml error: ", 19) = 19
write(2, "Parser error", 12) = 12
write(2, "\n", 1) = 1
write(2, "terminate called after throwing "..., 48) = 48
write(2, "libdnf::ModulePackageContainer::"..., 48) = 48
...
--- SIGABRT {si_signo=SIGABRT, si_code=SI_TKILL, si_pid=944, si_uid=0} ---
+++ killed by SIGABRT (core dumped) +++

```

If I uncompress the `c32a428b8b4e706b6fd51aa79ebe336585c3aaf0675b0c18a02a10b7303a3869-modules.yaml.xz` file, I seems to start fairly normally:

```auto
# head -20 c32a428b8b4e706b6fd51aa79ebe336585c3aaf0675b0c18a02a10b7303a3869-modules.yaml
---
document: modulemd-defaults
version: 1
data:
  module: mariadb
  profiles:
    10.11: [server]
...
---
document: modulemd
version: 2
data:
  name: mariadb
  stream: "10.11"
  version: 9070020251119234135
  context: rhel9
  static_context: true
  arch: aarch64
  summary: MariaDB Module
  description: >-

```

Does anybody have an idea what might be wrong?

It looks like this _only_ happens for aarch64, and Rocky Linux 9. x86\_64 fine.

[Edited to indicate that this affects the latest Rocky 9.x. It’s a Docker artifact that the most recent rockylinux:9 tag seems to point at 9.3].

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dimitry-unified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@dimitry-unified](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/dimitry-unified)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-x-aarch64-bad-appstream-repo-yaml-file/20052/2 "2025-12-14T19:22:32Z")

</div>

Okay, some further debugging with a YAML validator showed that there is a parse error in the `c32a428b8b4e706b6fd51aa79ebe336585c3aaf0675b0c18a02a10b7303a3869-modules.yaml` file, at line 2690:

```auto
yaml.scanner.ScannerError: while scanning a simple key
  in "c32a428b8b4e706b6fd51aa79ebe336585c3aaf0675b0c18a02a10b7303a3869-modules.yaml", line 2690, column 1
could not find expected ':'
  in "c32a428b8b4e706b6fd51aa79ebe336585c3aaf0675b0c18a02a10b7303a3869-modules.yaml", line 2691, column 1

```

The file around that part looks like:

```auto
    - rubygem-rbs-debuginfo-0:3.4.0-5.module+el9.7.0+40039+300ba1ed.aarch64
    - rubygem-rdoc-0:6.6.3.1-5.module+el9.7.0+40039+300ba1ed.noarch
    - rubygem-rexml-0:3.4.4-5.module+el9.7.0+40039+300ba1ed.noarch
    - rubygem-rss-0:0.3.1-5.module+el9.7.0+40039+300ba1ed.noarch
    - rubygem-test-unit-0:3.6.1-5.module+el9.7.0+40039+300ba1ed.noarch
    - rubygem-typeprof-0:0.21.9-5.module+el9.7.0+40039+300ba1ed.noarch
    - rubygems-0:3.5.22-5.module+el9.7.0+40039+300ba1ed.noarch
    - rubygems-devel-0:3.5.22-5.module+el9.7.0+40039+300ba1ed.noarch
..
---
document: modulemd
version: 2
data:
  name: mysql
  stream: "8.4"
  version: 9070020251211173557
  context: rhel9
  static_context: true
  arch: aarch64
  summary: MySQL Module
  description: >-

```

The `..` line is exactly line 2690. It looks like somebody made a mistake when making the modules.yaml file for `createrepo`.

Should I file a bug in the bug tracker for this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dimitry-unified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@dimitry-unified](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/dimitry-unified)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2025, 12:29am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-x-aarch64-bad-appstream-repo-yaml-file/20052/3 "2025-12-15T00:29:57Z")

</div>

In the mean time, the repository’s repodata folder has been rotated due to updates, and the modules.yaml file is now OK.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rossnick](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/rossnick/32/5504_2.png) [@rossnick](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/rossnick)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-x-aarch64-bad-appstream-repo-yaml-file/20052/4 "2025-12-16T15:06:05Z")

</div>

I also still have this issue, on new docker build also, so no cache.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dimitry-unified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@dimitry-unified](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/dimitry-unified)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 9:04am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-x-aarch64-bad-appstream-repo-yaml-file/20052/5 "2025-12-17T09:04:09Z")

</div>

How are you testing this? I just re-checked it here in a docker container (aarch64 host):

```auto
% docker run -ti rockylinux:9
[root@a53625d86869 /]# yum makecache
Rocky Linux 9 - BaseOS 18 MB/s | 7.5 MB 00:00
Rocky Linux 9 - AppStream 23 MB/s | 11 MB 00:00
Rocky Linux 9 - Extras 84 kB/s | 17 kB 00:00
Metadata cache created.

```

No problems at all.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rossnick](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/rossnick/32/5504_2.png) [@rossnick](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/rossnick)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-x-aarch64-bad-appstream-repo-yaml-file/20052/6 "2025-12-17T13:52:05Z")

</div>

Even after having cleaned up images and all, the build still failed with the same error. Strangely, I retried an hour later and it worked fine. Maybe I hit a particular mirror that had not been updated. Go figure.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/rockylinux/original/1X/91b7219eec10e30013422e4df76c1d898711a5d5.svg) [@system](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 1:52pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-x-aarch64-bad-appstream-repo-yaml-file/20052/7 "2026-02-15T13:52:47Z")

</div>

Closed on February 15, 2026, 1:52pm UTC

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