Keeping RH9 up-to-date (Progeny Transition Service ?)

[DanB]

Ok, I've been procrastinating and need to do something about this.

I'm running RH9 with DA. Both run great, no problems.

All RH9 updates were current as of when ever they stopped doing them.

I'm considering using Progeny Transition Service for updates, but
want to look before leaping.

Are there any cautions to using their updates with respect
to not breaking DA ?

Thanks,

Dan

[jlasman]

Don't install the ones you shouldn't :) .

There have been several threads on updating RHL using RPM; one or more of them has the list of dos and donts.

Jeff

[ProWebUK]

Any rpms available, just run:

rpm -q package_name

if it doesnt exist, dont install it (or check here 1st) - if it exists you should be fine updating.

Chris

[ozcorp]

I am using yum instead of up2date.

http://www.hut.fi/~tkarvine/yum-package-manager.html

Installed it from the above link, has anybody else had bad/good experience from using yum. I haven't had any bad experience just thought I'd ask.

[DanB]

Sorry guys, I think I'm going to need a little more hand-holding.

To catch up to where I need to be:

#1. I see a few updates available when I run up2date -l
Do I need to catch up with those?

#2. Using the lists on Progeny, at what point should I start from?

#3. When Progeny issues an update, and it indicates that it is needed for my RH9, I check each RPM that it wants to have installed, example: libpng10-1.0.13-11.progeny.1.i386.rpm,

so I would check to see if its installed:

root# rpm -q libpng10-1.0.13-11.progeny.1.i386.rpm
package libpng10-1.0.13-11.progeny.1.i386.rpm is not installed
Which indicates that I don't need to install it.

If it is present, I need to first download the RPM(s) from Progeny and install
them with the rpm -Fvh <RPM file name>.

Is that correct?

Last thing, I am not clear on the difference between SRPMS and RPMS.

Sorry for having to be so basic. I'm just that kinda guy.

Thanks again.

Dan

[ProWebUK]

Originally posted by DanB
#1. I see a few updates available when I run up2date -l
Do I need to catch up with those?


Yes, they will be the redhat updates until the EOL date.

Originally posted by DanB
#2. Using the lists on Progeny, at what point should I start from?

They start from the date of the EOL, so you should update as noted above (using up2date) and then what all thats available from progeny that you have on your systems.

Originally posted by DanB
#3. When Progeny issues an update, and it indicates that it is needed for my RH9, I check each RPM that it wants to have installed, example: libpng10-1.0.13-11.progeny.1.i386.rpm,

so I would check to see if its installed:

root# rpm -q libpng10-1.0.13-11.progeny.1.i386.rpm
package libpng10-1.0.13-11.progeny.1.i386.rpm is not installed
Which indicates that I don't need to install it.

rpm -q package_title

not

rpm -q rpm_name_or_newrpm_name

basically, to check if you have a package (and if so, what version) you use rpm like:

rpm -q libpng
rpm -q kernel
rpm -q other_packages

Originally posted by DanB
If it is present, I need to first download the RPM(s) from Progeny and install
them with the rpm -Fvh <RPM file name>.

Is that correct?

In general you should use:

rpm -Uvh rpm (upgrade)

or

rpm -ivh rpm (install)

For kernel, use "ivh" NOT Uvh - even if you have kernel already there (which you will have unless you have a custom kernel and removed the rpms)

Originally posted by DanB
Last thing, I am not clear on the difference between SRPMS and RPMS.

SRPMS are source RPMS - they basically allow you to rebuild the rpm differently and edit things about, then rebuild the rpm. it's likely you wont need these, unless you know how to use them, you are probably better off leaving them and going for the normal rpms.

Chris

[kark]

Little question .. can we just update the kernel rpm's without any problem or is there a chance that the server will 'break', like when compiling a new kernel?

Thanks,
Kark

[jlasman]

There's always a chance a new kernel won't work on your system.

There's also a chance that when you do the upgrade you'll forget to "fix" your startup system (we use LILO; it's simpler and easier to use for us) to keep the old kernel as a backup.

In my opinion, you shouldn't replace a kernel except when you're willing to visit (or pay someone else to visit) your system if necessary, to restart it from a restore floppy or restore CD (you do have those, don't you) and rebuild your startup system.

Jeff

[kark]

Thanks Jeff for the quick response.
(And yes, I have a restore possibility)

[Rob T]

If you want a system that will allow you to use Yum or Apt-Get to install packages, I would recommend checking out the Fedora Legacy Project. I've been using it to update my DA and Cpanel servers that are running older versions of Redhat Linux. They even have a Yum rpm installer that is pre-configured to utilize their updated packages. All you have to do is either update your yum.conf or you could even remove your install of yum and replace it with theirs. The only other thing you need to do is to import their GPG-KEY so that key checking of the RPM's you download will not fail.

Here is a copy of my yum.conf that I use to update my Redhat 7.3 server. I have run several updates, and with the exclude list I have set up I have not yet seen anything break within DA:

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest
exactarch=1
exclude=httpd* mysql* php* perl* apache* mod_* MySQL* *ftp* exim* sendmail* php* kernel* da_*

[base]
name=Red Hat Linux $releasever base
baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/os/$basearch
gpgcheck=1

[updates]
name=Red Hat Linux $releasever updates
baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/updates/$basearch
gpgcheck=1

#[updates-testing]
#name=Red Hat Linux $releasever updates-testing
#baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/updates-testing/$basearch
#gpgcheck=1

[legacy-utils]
name=Fedora Legacy utilities for Red Hat Linux $releasever
baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/legacy-utils/$basearch
gpgcheck=1


You can also use any of their other avaialble mirrors for updates etc. I've also used them to do kernel updates via Yum, and the process has always been flawless for me.

[jlasman]

Thanks for an excellent post, Rob.

Do you know how we can set up our own Yum repository? We subscribe to Progeny Transition service, and they don't offer any automation.

But perhaps I could just upload all their fixes to a yum repository.

Does anyone know if it's hard to do?

Jeff

[DanB]

Hi all,

Progeny updates have been going well. Zero problems.

Now, I've ran into question. A recent SSH update that I've tried
to install gives me this:



[root@host]# rpm -Uvh openssh-3.5p1-11.progeny.2.i386.rpm
warning: openssh-3.5p1-11.progeny.2.i386.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID f6b38fe4
error: Failed dependencies:
openssh = 3.5p1-11 is needed by (installed) openssh-clients-3.5p1-11
openssh = 3.5p1-11 is needed by (installed) openssh-server-3.5p1-11


I have these updates to install:

openssh-3.5p1-11.progeny.2.i386.rpm
openssh-clients-3.5p1-11.progeny.2.i386.rpm
openssh-server-3.5p1-11.progeny.2.i386.rpm

Should I install the clients & server updates first ? Or ?

Thanks

Dan

[Rob T]

If you want to update SSH, you will have to update the client and server packages first, or --force the update (not recommended!)

If you use a package management system such as yum all of the dependency issues would be resolved for you - take a look at my yum.conf config file above - it works great for us, and we never have to worry about making sure we have all of the dependent packages.

a simple yum update ssh would take care of the entire update for you.