What were you trying to do that didn't work?

Installing a RHEL machine with kickstart that loads a custom yum repository

What is the impact of this issue to you?

It works fine with kernel 4.18.0-553.42.1.el8_10.x86_64 but fails when kernel 4.18.0-553.47.1.el8_10.x86_64  

Please provide the package NVR for which the bug is seen:

Any anaconda-core.el8_10.x86_64. All of them have the same unchanged version comparison. 

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/payload/utils.py", line 180, in version_cmp
    return (first_version > second_version) - (first_version < second_version)

I even found anaconda-core-33.16.8.9-1.el8_8.x86_64 still having the same call

~~~
def version_cmp(v1, v2):
    """Compare two version number strings."""
    first_version = LooseVersion(v1)
    second_version = LooseVersion(v2)
    return (first_version > second_version) - (first_version < second_version)
~~~

Any python3-3.6.*.el8_10.x86_64. I tested on python3-libs-3.6.8-51.el8.x86_64 that has below code for comparison. 

~~~
    def _gt_(self, other):
 64         c = self.cmp(other)                    ->>         File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/distutils/version.py", line 64, in __gt_
 65         if c is NotImplemented:
 66             return c
 67         return c > 0

267 class LooseVersion (Version):

        <SNIP>

331     def _cmp (self, other):
332         if isinstance(other, str):
333             other = LooseVersion(other)
334 
335         if self.version == other.version:
336             return 0
337         if self.version < other.version:
338             return -1
339         if self.version > other.version:
340             return 1
341 
~~~

How reproducible is this bug?:

100%

Steps to reproduce

1.  Copy entire RHEL 8.10 ISO DVD and add additional repo called DCROS. Ensure that group name 'rhel-extras' is set for all packages provided by this repo in comps.xml
2. Mention the repo as group "@rhel-extras" in %packages section of kickstart script
   --------------------
   %packages
   @^minimal-environment
   @debugging
   @development
   @legacy-unix
   @rhel-extras  <--- This is this DCROS repo
   @security-tools
   @system-tools
   glibc.i686
   glibc-devel.i686
   glibc-headers.i686
   kexec-tools
   Location of the repo as defined in the kickstart:
3. Additional repositories that can be used as sources for package installation
   repo --name="BaseOS" --baseurl=file:///run/install/repo/BaseOS
   repo --name="AppStream" --baseurl=file:///run/install/repo/AppStream
   repo --name="DCROS" --baseurl=file:///run/install/repo/addons/DCROS/packages
   --------------------
    
4. Perform installation with kernel 4.18.0-553.47.1.el8_10.x86_64 included in the repository

This can be easily reproduced  outside of all this hassel with directly invoking python :

anaconda-core passes arguments to python3-utils  version.py as 
other: 4.18.0-553.47.1.el8_10.x86_64
self: 4.18.0-553.el8_10.x86_64

We can pass them over cmdline:

Comparing these works 
4.18.0-553.47.1.el8_10.x86_64 > 4.18.0-553.42.1.el8_10.x86_64 : Returns true
~~~

1. /usr/bin/python3  -c 'from distutils.version import LooseVersion as V; print(V("4.18.0-553.47.1.el8_10.x86_64") > V("4.18.0-553.42.1.el8_10.x86_64"))'
   True
   ~~~

Comparing these fails
4.18.0-553.47.1.el8_10.x86_64 > 4.18.0-553.el8_10.x86_64
~~~

1. /usr/bin/python3  -c 'from distutils.version import LooseVersion as V; print(V("4.18.0-553.47.1.el8_10.x86_64") > V("4.18.0-553.el8_10.x86_64"))'
   Traceback (most recent call last):
     File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
     File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/distutils/version.py", line 64, in _gt_
       c = self._cmp(other)
     File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/distutils/version.py", line 337, in _cmp
       if self.version < other.version:
   TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'int' and 'str'
   ~~~

   Expected results

Comparing version should not fail with traceback 
4.18.0-553.47.1.el8_10.x86_64 > 4.18.0-553.el8_10.x86_64 

Actual results

~~~
installing boot loader

17:39:11,499 INF installation: Queue started: Bootloader installation (7/17)
17:39:11,499 INF installation: Task started: Configure the bootloader (12/44)
17:39:11,613 INF threading: Thread Failed: AnaInstallThread (140606170601216)
17:39:11,613 DBG exception: running handleException
17:39:11,615 CRT exception: Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/threading.py", line 280, in run
    threading.Thread.run(self)

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/threading.py", line 885, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/installation.py", line 406, in run_installation
    queue.start()

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/installation_tasks.py", line 311, in start
    item.start()

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/installation_tasks.py", line 311, in start
    item.start()

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/installation_tasks.py", line 311, in start
    item.start()

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/installation_tasks.py", line 490, in start
    self.run_task()

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/installation_tasks.py", line 456, in run_task
    self._task(*self._task_args, **self._task_kwargs)

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/installation.py", line 351, in configure_bootloader
    boot_task = bootloader_proxy.ConfigureWithTask(payload.kernel_version_list)

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/payload/dnf/payload.py", line 2105, in kernel_version_list
    return sorted(files, key=functools.cmp_to_key(payload_utils.version_cmp))

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/pyanaconda/payload/utils.py", line 180, in version_cmp
    return (first_version > second_version) - (first_version < second_version)

  File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/distutils/version.py", line 64, in _gt_
    c = self._cmp(other)

 File "/usr/lib64/python3.6/distutils/version.py", line 337, in _cmp
    if self.version < other.version:

TypeError: '<' not supported between instances of 'str' and 'int'

>> an unknown error has occurred look at /tmp/anaconda* for more details.
~~~

The problem here is the comparison is happening between 
self "str"~"el8_10.x86_64" (or part of it) with other "int" ~ "47.1.el8_10.x86_64" (or part of it)

If we separate out the numeric part before el8_10 and separate the version in 2 variables each and pass them to python LooseVersion, it would not fail.