Easy way to update Fedora

[M. Lewis]

Gerald Thompson wrote:
> On 7/15/05, Deboo ^ <knowledgeful at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>What is the easiest way to update Fedora. I have heard and read a lot
>>about yum but it has never worked for me, tried it many times on
>>different machines. I do nto know why, it just hangs on the first
>>message and nothing happens. What do I need to put in /etc/yum.conf to
>>make it work? Is there any sample yum.conf that would work out of the
>>box? And later  could change it to suit me more?
>>
>>Can someone provide a link to a good yum.conf I could use as a startign point?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Deboo
> 
> 
> start by going to www.fedorafaq.org
> - there is an yum.conf for FC3 - however you may not want to use that
> one if you are using FC4
> - even if you are using FC4 though, you can still print it out or keep
> a copy of it.
> - next in FC4 I believe you are supposed to use repo.d files instead
> of tagging the repo's in your yum.conf
> - since you are fairly new I would recommend going with fedora extras
> and livna as your repo's
> - the other option is the rpmforge packages - 4 RPMforge repositories
> (FreshRPMS, PlanetCCRMA, Dries and DAG)
> - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - do not mix fedora-extras/livna with
> RPMforge - choose one or the other not both.
> - if you want to get help with RPMforge repo's go here
> http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/ and http://freshrpms.net/ and
> http://atrpms.net/dist/fc4/
> 
> - now for fedora-extras/livna which is what I use
> livna.org
> - http://rpm.livna.org/configuration.html
> - To start using the rpm.livna.org repository in yum simply install
> the livna-release  rpm package:
> - rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/4/i386/RPMS.lvn/livna-release-4-0.lvn.2.4.noarch.rpm
> - don't forget to follow steps on the configuration page to install the gpg key
> 
> fedora-extras
> - rpm.livna.org is not a standalone repository. You must use
> rpm.livna.org with Fedora Extras. In Core 4 Fedora Extras is included
> in the default configuration and works out of the box. Fedora Core 3
> users need to add Fedora Extras manually.
> - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/UsingExtras
> 
> Once you have fedora-extras/livna installed you will be able to
> install any package that is in the repo's, I am going to start with
> searching packages first though.
> 
> - log in as root
> - su -
> - to find a package - yum search 'package-name' or yum search 'any-keyword'
> - once you find the package - double check if it is installed yum list
> 'package-name'
> - you can also do different type of searches before you actually install things
> - yum list available 'package-name' - leave blank for all available
> packages or type a package name
> - yum list installed 'package-name' - shows you if a package is installed or not
> - yum list updates - shows you all packages available for update
> - yum check-update - does the same thing as list but shows the
> packages differently
> - yum info 'package-name' - tells you what a package does
> 
> - now the reason I give all the search commands first is because you
> can't hurt anything by doing searches or looking up info.  It is a
> good way to get familiar with package management and how to get info
> on a package quickly
> 
> - now there are different ways to install packages - depending on what
> you are trying to accomplish
> 
> UPDATES TO SYSTEM AND PROGRAMS:
> - installing updates only
> - yum update
> - to update but exclude a package like kernel or selinux policies
> - yum --exclude=kernel* update
> - yum --exclude=selinux* update
> 
> UPDATING WITH NO CONFIRMATION PROMPTS:
> - I don't recommend this for really new users, but you can do updates
> without confirmation, as I said for a new user it is better to have
> confirmations.
> - yum -y update
> - will download and install all updates without asking your
> permission, you can also do this with the exclusions too
> - yum -y --exlude=kernel* update
> - it will install all the updates except the kernel updates
> 
> INSTALLING A PACKAGE
> - if you find a package you want to install, make sure you know the
> correct package name by using yum search and yum list first
> - yum install 'package-name'
> - this will automatically find all the dependencies for you
> - yum remove 'package-name'
> - this will remove a package and all its dependencies from your system
> 
> REMOVING A PACKAGE THAT IS NOT IN THE REPOS
> - this is a neat trick as well, say you installed the RPM for real
> player or java, www.real.com, java.sun.com - you want to remove it
> before you upgrade
> - you can use yum to do this if you want
> - yum list extras - this shows you all packages you installed with rpm
> - yum remove 'package-name'
> 
> - for more detailed info you can do:
> man yum
> info yum
> man yum.conf
> info yum.conf
> 
> I hope the information is helpful.

Great writeup Gerald! Thanks.