diff -Nur smeserver-yum-2.6.0.old/root/sbin/e-smith/yum_update_dbs smeserver-yum-2.6.0/root/sbin/e-smith/yum_update_dbs
--- smeserver-yum-2.6.0.old/root/sbin/e-smith/yum_update_dbs	2008-10-07 10:25:45.000000000 -0400
+++ smeserver-yum-2.6.0/root/sbin/e-smith/yum_update_dbs	2019-12-05 20:32:00.867000000 -0500
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@
 
 use constant YUM_CMD => "/usr/bin/yum -d 0 -e 0 ";
 
+# avoid error with no installed groups file.
+system("YUM_CMD groups mark convert -d 0 -e 0 1>/dev/null") unless (-d "/var/lib/yum/groups/");
+
 my $tmp_file;
 
 END { $tmp_file and -f $tmp_file and unlink $tmp_file; }