I saw a lot of other questions like this but none of them answered the exact part I am having trouble with (actually installing the Python RPM). Someone on my system deleted /usr/bin/python and /usr/bin/python2.4 on my 64 bit CentOS 5.8 installation. I recompiled Python 2.4 from source, but now whenever I try to yum install anything I get the following error:

[root@cerulean-OW1 ~]# yum install httpd
There was a problem importing one of the Python modules
required to run yum. The error leading to this problem was:

   No module named yum

Please install a package which provides this module, or
verify that the module is installed correctly.

It's possible that the above module doesn't match the
current version of Python, which is:
2.4 (#1, Dec 16 2012, 09:16:56)
[GCC 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-52)]

If you cannot solve this problem yourself, please go to
the yum faq at:
  http://wiki.linux.duke.edu/YumFaq

I checked http://wiki.linux.duke.edu/YumFaq and it said the following:

If you are getting a message that yum itself is the missing module then you probably installed it incorreclty (or installed the source rpm using make/make install). If possible, find a prebuilt rpm that will work for your system like one from Fedora or CentOS. Or, you can download the srpm and do a

rpmbuild --rebuild yum*.src.rpm 

I tried going to http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/17838875/dir/centos_5/com/python-2.4.3-46.el5.x86_64.rpm.html to install Python, which resulted in the following error:

[root@cerulean-OW1 ~]# rpm -Uvh python-2.4.3-46.el5.x86_64.rpm                  
error: Failed dependencies:
    python-libs-x86_64 = 2.4.3-46.el5 is needed by python-2.4.3-46.el5.x86_64

So I tried installing python-libs-x86_64, which resulted in the following:

[root@cerulean-OW1 ~]# rpm -Uvh python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64.rpm
warning: python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 192a7d7d
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
        package python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64 is already installed
        file /usr/lib64/libpython2.4.so.1.0 from install of python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64 conflicts with file from package python-libs-2.4.3-46.el5_8.2.x86_64