salt: Problem re-installing salt-minion

Description of Issue/Question

I found the salt-minion on a server broken, I had to un-install it with,

yum --setopt=tsflags=noscripts remove salt-minion

As I kept getting,

===========
8><---
Running Transaction
error: %preun(salt-minion-2017.7.0-1.el6.noarch) scriptlet failed, exit status 1
Error in PREUN scriptlet in rpm package salt-minion
8><---
===========

So when I try to install it and run it I get,

===========
[root@vuwunicocatd001 etc]# yum -y install salt-minion
Loaded plugins: product-id, refresh-packagekit, rhnplugin, search-disabled-repos, security, subscription-manager
This system is receiving updates from RHN Classic or RHN Satellite.
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package salt-minion.noarch 0:2017.7.0-1.el6 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=================================================================================================================================================
 Package                           Arch                         Version                               Repository                            Size
=================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 salt-minion                       noarch                       2017.7.0-1.el6                        saltstack-salt                        36 k

Transaction Summary
=================================================================================================================================================
Install       1 Package(s)

Total download size: 36 k
Installed size: 76 k
Downloading Packages:
salt-minion-2017.7.0-1.el6.noarch.rpm                                                                                     |  36 kB     00:00     
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing : salt-minion-2017.7.0-1.el6.noarch                                                                                             1/1 
  Verifying  : salt-minion-2017.7.0-1.el6.noarch                                                                                             1/1 

Installed:
  salt-minion.noarch 0:2017.7.0-1.el6                                                                                                            

Complete!
[root@vuwunicocatd001 etc]# service salt-minion stop
ERROR: Unable to look-up config values for /etc/salt
[root@vuwunicocatd001 etc]# cd salt
[root@vuwunicocatd001 salt]# ls -l
total 72
-rw-r-----. 1 root root 34771 Jul 13 06:08 minion
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root  4096 Jul 18 07:34 minion.d
drwxr-xr-x. 3 root root  4096 Aug  1 10:03 pki
-rw-r-----. 1 root root 28002 Jul 13 06:08 proxy
[root@vuwunicocatd001 salt]# salt-minion -l debug
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/salt-minion", line 6, in <module>
    from salt.scripts import salt_minion
ImportError: No module named salt.scripts
[root@vuwunicocatd001 salt]# 
=============

Setup

(Please provide relevant configs and/or SLS files (Be sure to remove sensitive info).)

Steps to Reproduce Issue

(Include debug logs if possible and relevant.)

Versions Report

(Provided by running salt --versions-report. Please also mention any differences in master/minion versions.)

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[root@vuwunicocatd001 salt]# rpm -q salt-minion
salt-minion-2017.7.0-1.el6.noarch
[root@vuwunicocatd001 salt]# 
======