I have a very simple recipe that tries to install a (yum) package from a remote repo, as follows:

package "passenger-release" do
  source node["passenger-rpm"]["releaserpm"]
  action :install
end

I’ve checked that on the target node, node[“passenger-rpm”][“releaserpm”] is defined properly, i.e. “http://passenger.stealthymonkeys.com/fedora/16/passenger-release.noarch.rpm”

When I try to run this, chef-client spits out a very bizarre error:

[Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:41:42 -0400] INFO: Processing package[passenger-release] action install (passenger-rpm::default line 25)
[Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:44:55 -0400] WARN: Problem parsing line 'samba4-pidl 0 4.0.0 37.alpha16.fc16 x86_64 ['perl(Parse::Pidl) = 0.02', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::CUtil) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Compat) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Dump) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Expr)', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::IDL)', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::NDR) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::ODL) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba3::ClientNDR) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba3::ServerNDR) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba4) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba4::COM::Header) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba4::COM::Proxy) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba4::COM::Stub) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba4::Header) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba4::NDR::Client) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba4::NDR::Parser) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba4::NDR::Server) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba4::Python) = 0.01', 'perl(Parse::Pidl::Samba' from yum-dump.py! Please check your yum configuration.
[Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:44:55 -0400] ERROR: package[passenger-release] (passenger-rpm::default line 25) has had an error
[Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:44:55 -0400] ERROR: package[passenger-release] (/var/chef/cache/cookbooks/passenger-rpm/recipes/default.rb:25:in `from_file') had an error:
package[passenger-release] (passenger-rpm::default line 25) had an error: Chef::Exceptions::Package: Yum failed - #<Process::Status: pid=7089,signaled(SIGKILL=9)> - returns: 
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/provider/package/yum.rb:751:in `refresh'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/provider/package/yum.rb:810:in `packages_from_require'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/provider/package/yum.rb:1144:in `parse_dependency'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/provider/package/yum.rb:975:in `load_current_resource'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/resource.rb:439:in `run_action'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/runner.rb:45:in `run_action'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/runner.rb:81:in `converge'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/runner.rb:81:in `each'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/runner.rb:81:in `converge'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/resource_collection.rb:94:in `execute_each_resource'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/resource_collection/stepable_iterator.rb:116:in `call'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/resource_collection/stepable_iterator.rb:116:in `call_iterator_block'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/resource_collection/stepable_iterator.rb:85:in `step'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/resource_collection/stepable_iterator.rb:104:in `iterate'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/resource_collection/stepable_iterator.rb:55:in `each_with_index'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/resource_collection.rb:92:in `execute_each_resource'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/runner.rb:76:in `converge'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/client.rb:312:in `converge'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/client.rb:160:in `run'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/application/client.rb:239:in `run_application'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/application/client.rb:229:in `loop'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/application/client.rb:229:in `run_application'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/../lib/chef/application.rb:67:in `run'
/usr/lib64/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.10.8/bin/chef-client:26
/usr/bin/chef-client:19:in `load'
/usr/bin/chef-client:19

Any ideas?