title: ipython: OperationalError: disk I/O error
body: <p>I was running ipython successfully on fedora 18 until now: I'm getting the following exception when trying to launch it:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/ipython", line 9, in &lt;module&gt;
      load_entry_point('ipython==1.1.0', 'console_scripts', 'ipython')()
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/__init__.py", line 118, in start_ipython
      return launch_new_instance(argv=argv, **kwargs)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/config/application.py", line 544, in launch_instance
      app.initialize(argv)
    File "&lt;string&gt;", line 2, in initialize
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/config/application.py", line 89, in catch_config_error
      return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/terminal/ipapp.py", line 323, in initialize
      self.init_shell()
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/terminal/ipapp.py", line 339, in init_shell
      ipython_dir=self.ipython_dir, user_ns=self.user_ns)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/config/configurable.py", line 349, in instance
      inst = cls(*args, **kwargs)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/terminal/interactiveshell.py", line 320, in __init__
      **kwargs
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py", line 456, in __init__
      self.init_history()
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py", line 1487, in init_history
      self.history_manager = HistoryManager(shell=self, parent=self)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/history.py", line 481, in __init__
      self.new_session()
    File "&lt;string&gt;", line 2, in new_session
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/history.py", line 65, in needs_sqlite
      return f(self, *a, **kw)
    File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/history.py", line 500, in new_session
      self.session_number = cur.lastrowid
  OperationalError: disk I/O error
  
  If you suspect this is an IPython bug, please report it at:
      https://github.com/ipython/ipython/issues
  or send an email to the mailing list at ipython-dev@scipy.org
  
  You can print a more detailed traceback right now with "%tb", or use "%debug"
  to interactively debug it.
  
  Extra-detailed tracebacks for bug-reporting purposes can be enabled via:
      c.Application.verbose_crash=True
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried to upgrade ipython to the latest version using pip, which did not help. Any solution or workaround is very much welcomed.</p>