It's possible for %preun to fail if openfire isn't already running, which apparently cancels out the uninstall? =/ [root@xxx ~]# service openfire stop Shutting down openfire: [root@xxxx ~]# rpm -e openfire Shutting down openfire: error: %preun(openfire-3.4.3-1.i386) scriptlet failed, exit status 1 [root@xxxx ~]# rpm -q openfire openfire-3.4.3-1