--- rpm-4.5/rpmio/rpmrpc.c~	2009-10-16 01:18:18.566743349 +0300
+++ rpm-4.5/rpmio/rpmrpc.c	2009-10-16 01:18:21.863999841 +0300
@@ -179,5 +179,6 @@
 {
     const char * lpath;
     int ut = urlPath(path, &lpath);
+    int fdno;
 
 if (_rpmio_debug)
@@ -212,7 +213,17 @@
     if (mode == 0)
 	mode = 0644;
 #endif
-    return open(path, flags, mode);
+    fdno = open(path, flags, mode);
+    /* XXX if the open(2) fails, try to strip a possible chroot(2) prefix. */
+    if (fdno < 0 && errno == ENOENT) {
+        const char *dbpath = rpmExpand("%{_dbpath}", "/", NULL);
+        const char *fn = strstr(path + 1, dbpath);
+        if (fn)
+            fdno = open(fn, flags, mode);
+        if (dbpath)
+        	 dbpath = _free(dbpath);
+    }
+    return fdno;
 }
 
 /* XXX rpmdb.c: analogue to rename(2). */