Easy way to update Fedora

[Gerald Thompson]

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.
-- 
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Gerald Thompson
geraldlt at gmail.com
www.geraldthompson.getdh.net
www.gltechsolutions.com
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