yum update problem

[Julien Le Houérou]

Paul Howarth wrote:

> Julien Le Houérou wrote:
>
>> Hi, as I run 'yum update' everything runs, is downloads the packages 
>> to update,
>> and after running transaction check it tells "package <---> needs 
>> <---> free space on filesystem /".
>>
>> I got large free space even after downloading the packages....
>>
>> So i cd to the dl directory and run "rpm -Uvh <package>, and it 
>> updates".
>>
>> When I run "rpm -Uvh *" it comes back telling me it needs free space".
>>
>> Anyone knows about that?
>
>
> There are a couple of factors.
>
> When you try to run all the updates as part of a single transaction 
> (which is what yum would do, and also "rpm -Uvh *"), rpm will install 
> all the files for the updated packages and only then delete files 
> belonging to the old (replaced) packages that have not been 
> overwritten. So handling lots of packages at once takes more disk space.
>
> Most likely there is also a kernel update to do. Yum installs kernels 
> without removing the old ones, which will require more space on the / 
> filesystem. You shouldn't try "rpm -Uvh *" if an updated kernel RPM in 
> the current directory because it will result in your currently running 
> kernel (and its modules) being deleted, leading inevitably to a crash. 
> You need to install rather than upgrade kernels, and delete old 
> kernels that you're no longer using manually.
>
> Paul.
>
As you told, I did install the new kernel first, then rebooted and
uninstalled the old one.
Then I ran a ',yum clean all', then a 'yum -y update' and it worked as
usual.

Thanks for this tip!