diff -Naur apt-0.5.15lorg2.orig/apt-pkg/rpm/rpmpm.cc apt-0.5.15lorg2/apt-pkg/rpm/rpmpm.cc
--- apt-0.5.15lorg2.orig/apt-pkg/rpm/rpmpm.cc	2009-01-19 17:12:32 +0300
+++ apt-0.5.15lorg2/apt-pkg/rpm/rpmpm.cc	2009-01-19 17:13:31 +0300
@@ -795,7 +795,7 @@
    const char *RootDir = NULL;
    if (!Dir.empty())
       RootDir = Dir.c_str();
-   if (rpmdbOpen(RootDir, &DB, O_RDWR, 0644) != 0)
+   if (rpmdbOpen(RootDir, &DB, O_RDWR|O_CREAT, 0644) != 0)
    {
       _error->Error(_("Could not open RPM database"));
       goto exit;