[PLUG] Red Hat 7.2 Update Procedure Questions

[Robert]

I appriciate the help, but this is still waaaay too advanced for my Linux 
skills.  There were over 100 updates listed and I'm afraid I'd either lose 
my sanity or go back to Windows 3.0 before updating this many strange 
looking (at least to me) files manually.

Robert


Kyle Accardi wrote:

> Robert wrote:
> 
>> I received 2 updates with the website method, then a failure on the 3rd
>> update and it stopped downloading.
>> 
>> I then used both commands as you wrote, and they started to work,
>> connected to Red Hat just fine...then they failed with error 404.
>> 
>> Next I scheduled a bunch of updates through the Red Hat website. Now I
>> have had this computer online for 7 1/2 hours waiting and trying to do
>> the web scheduled updates. I am getting tired of this.
>> 
>> I am quickly losing respect for Red Hat. This is a lousy way to treat a
>> paying customer.  Is this the norm for them or a fluke?
> 
> 
> I've never used up2date myself, preferring a good old-fashioned ftp mirror
> like ftp://ftp.orst.edu/.1/ftp.redhat.com/linux/updates/7.2/en/os/i386
> (which is many times faster than RH's own servers)
> 
> I agree that RH's update info/procedures suck.  For example, say you care
> about version 7.0 of their distribution.  The Errata page on their web
> site
> stops in November of last year.  Yet, if you look at Errata page for 7.2,
> you will find relevelnt packages for 7.0 that you wouldn't have know about
> otherwise.
> 
> At least their ftp server (and mirrors) carry the updates for each
> release.
>   So, a good, close, fast mirror is your friend.  Log in and poke around
>   to
> get a feel for what's available.
> 
> Personally, I maintain my own mirror for 7.0 & 7.2 updates because that's
> what I'm running.  If you want to get your hands a little dirty, first
> update your *rpm* packages themselves.  The PLUG archives contain a thread
> about how the rpm package manager itself is broken in 7.2.  Once that's
> fixed, you can do the following,
> 
> rpm -Fvh
> ftp://ftp.orst.edu/.1/ftp.redhat.com/linux/updates/7.2/en/os/i386/zlib*
> 
> (all on one line).  This will download, then freshen zlib if you have an
> older version.  You can substitute anything for zlib* (a*, XFree*, z*).
> 
> This still doesn't lead to nirvana.  When you hit a package, like apache*,
> it will fail because the new apache has dependencies that don't start with
> "a*".  It will tell you what you need.  In those few cases, download all
> the required rpms in a fresh dir so you have them locally.  Then use rpm
> to Freshen or Update those files to make apache happy.
> 
> Good luck,
> Kyle Accardi