yum update problem

[Paul Howarth]

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.