rh62_autorpm

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Subject: Keeping RH up to date
From: "Mobeen Azhar" <moby@pcsn.net>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 14:32:14 -0500


I installed a RH 6.1 box and upgraded the kernel and modules stuff to 6.2 by
following the Kernel update howto.  The system is working fine.  I have a
couple of RPMS installed that I would like to keep up to date.  I have been
unable to get autorpm to ever compelte successfully!  It seems that  the FTP
sites that it checks are very slow and after going through some RPMS,
autorpm bombs.

Has anyone gottent autorpm to work consistently?  Are there any other solid
ways to keep a RH 6.2 box up to date?  I noticed that even though I upgraded
my kernel and modules to the 6.2 versions, autorpm still went looking under
the 6.1 directory on the ftp sites from which it gets it's updates.  I
FTP'ed to ftp.redhat.com and found that the number of RPMs is much greater
under the 6.1 directory than it is under the 6.2 directory.  From which
directory on ftp.redhat.com should I be updating from?

I did purchase RH 6.1 and have access to up2date but I do not want to run
netscape on my RH box.  Also I have an account on priority.redhat.com but I
cannot figure out how to give my credentials to autorpm!

This is starting to be frustrating.  Coming from a FreeBSD world I think I
got spoiled with the cvsup mechanism and the fast and responsive
ftp.freebsd.org!!!

===

Subject: RE: Keeping RH up to date 
From: "Mobeen Azhar" <moby@pcsn.net>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 15:20:37 -0500


Joe Brenner [mailto:doom@kzsu.stanford.edu] wrote:

> I haven't played with autorpm yet myself, but I just thought
> I'd mention that if running Linux is more important than
> running RedHat, you might look at the Debian distribution.
> I've heard that their apt-get mechanism works pretty well
> for auto-updates (autorpm is more-or-less RedHat playing
> catch-up with Debian).

Well, the only requirement is to run a non M$ OS that is available for a low
cost AND that can integrate with Novell's NDS.  I am able to successfully
run Novell's NDS4Linux on RH, not sure if it would work with Debian.  If I
can get NDS4Linux to work with Debian then I have no problem with running
Debian instead.  It is important for me to keep the software on the box
updated so I stay current with all security updates.

===

Subject: Re: Keeping RH up to date
From: Craig Kulesa <ckulesa@loke.as.arizona.edu>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 19:04:18 -0700 (MST)

Mobeen Azhar <moby@pcsn.net> writes:

> I installed a RH 6.1 box and upgraded the kernel and modules stuff to
> 6.2 by following the Kernel update howto.  [......]
> It seems that  the FTP sites that it checks are very slow and after
> going through some RPMS, autorpm bombs.
> Has anyone gotten autorpm to work consistently?  

If the sites that autorpm checks are slow or unreliable, go into
/etc/autorpm.d/autorpm.conf and /etc/autorpm.d/pools* and point it to more
reliable mirrors. A list of mirrors exists at 
http://www.redhat.com/mirrors.html.  Find a few that suit your needs
best and tell autorpm to try to use those first.  You can tell it to
use Redhat 6.2 updates in this file, if you really insist.

> I noticed that even though I upgraded my kernel and modules to the 6.2
> versions, autorpm still went looking under the 6.1 directory on the ftp
> sites from which it gets it's updates. 

That's because you pretty much still have Redhat 6.1: 

	'cat /etc/redhat-release'  :)

> I FTP'ed to ftp.redhat.com and found that the number of RPMs is much
> greater under the 6.1 directory than it is under the 6.2 
> directory. 

Redhat 6.1 has been out since 10/1999, so more updates are available. All
of X-Windows, Gnome, etc...

Redhat 6.2 incorporates the fixes to Redhat 6.1 and goes from there. It
makes _sense_ that fewer updates are available for 6.2.

Just because you upgraded the kernel from 6.1 to the one in 6.2 hardly
means that you're running Redhat 6.2.  For example, you're still using an
old(er) XFree86, slightly different glibc, GNOME, etc...

You have Redhat 6.1 with a newer kernel. That's it.  I'm running the
latest 2.4.0-test* kernel here.   Does that mean I'm functionally running
Redhat 7.0?  No.  I simply have Redhat 6.2 with a pre-2.4 kernel.  

So it's *entirely appropriate* that autorpm send you Redhat 6.1 updates.

Generally speaking, security updates are provided for all all Redhat
releases to which they are applicable. There's no penalty for sticking
with 6.1, in other words, at least in regards to updates. I think 6.2 is,
out of the box, much better though. 

> This is starting to be frustrating.  Coming from a FreeBSD world I think
> I got spoiled with the cvsup mechanism and the fast and responsive
> ftp.freebsd.org!!!

I can half-saturate a 10Mb network connection to metalab.unc.edu, for
example.  That's _not_ terrible.  Just because ftp.redhat.com is hammered
doesn't mean that you don't have many other choices. Find a mirror that
suits and use it.  They exist. 

Admittedly, there are many broken 3rd-party contributed RPM's, because
some RPM builders don't follow the rules for consistent 'dependencies' and
'provides' lists, among other things.  Debian and FreeBSD enforce the
rules better, the packages are made available in a more centralized and
organized and controlled manner.  I think Redhat could learn from these
efforts. 

I find RPM to be a very nice way of packaging software. It's well thought
out, organized and documented.  It's particularly nice when you are using
low end hardware for which the notion of compiling packages from CVS
source is not an option. Or if you prefer not to answer a billion
questions when upgrading packages -- you'd rather that the _packages_
themselves contain the intelligence necessary to install themselves
appropriately. RPM seems to provide this to a reasonable degree. It's not
perfect, but it's quite competent. IMHO, of course. :)

===

Subject: RE: Keeping RH up to date
From: "Mobeen Azhar" <moby@pcsn.net>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 10:26:53 -0500


Thanks Craig, it all makes sense now.  I switched to a different mirror and
everything updates pretty quick :)  Thanks again.

So now that I have a RH 6.1 box, with an updated kernel, and I have applied
updates for 6.1 via autorpm, can I change my release information in
/etc/redhat-release and autorpm updates meant for 6.2?  Or is that a bad
idea and I should really install 6.2 from scratch and then autorpm updates
meant for 6.2?

===


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