How to set up mirrors in Smart Package Manager?

[Claude Jones]

On Sat January 27 2007, oleksandr korneta wrote:
> Personally I didnt think about that too much, except maybe
> "yeah, it would be nice to have something like that". Just because even
> if had to create the .channel files manually, I had to do that only one
> time, right after the system is installed. Another thing, is that the
> maintainers of the repositories (particularly Livna) do not think about
> providing the configuration packages for smart, like they usually do for
> yum or even apt (???). So looks like someone should give them a little
> push.

The SMART faq has gotten a lot better, and bears a read before using it. It 
would save folks from much frustration. It is true that most repos have to be 
set up manually, but it's real easy to do once you figure out their method.

As regards Livna, if you install their livna-release package for FC6, you can 
subsequently look in /usr/share/doc/livna-release-6 and find there a 
script 'livna-smart-channels.sh' which you should run from a root terminal 
prompt 'sh livna-smart-channels.sh' - that will install the channels for 
Livna in Smart. 

SMART is worth the effort to figure out in my estimation - I've been using it 
for many months and have had NO problems save one small annoyance, currently 
ongoing. SDL-gfx and mjpegtools are currently doing a little dance. I open 
SMART and check the repos - it will return a list of what's updatable - one 
or the other package will be listed as an update, and the other will be 
listed as a downgrade, which if you look, is explained - namely that the 
other new package version requires the slightly older version of the other; 
if you allow the update to proceed, then, the next time you update, the 
packages will reverse roles, and the downgraded one will be listed as 
upgradable, and the previously upgraded one will be listed in the downgrade 
list. You can lock a package with a single click to prevent it from being 
tampered with, and that's what I've done, keeping the newer version of 
mjpegtools , because that program is of greater interest to me...

Mirror lists are a pain, because each mirror has to be entered manually. I've 
dealt with that by simply picking a mirror that's close to my geographical 
location, and solely configuring that as my sole main repo. I very rarely 
have had any issues regarding inaccessible repos doing it that way. Adding 
mirrors had been on my to-do list but when something's not causing a problem, 
I find it hard to budget time, so I haven't bothered. 

Hope this helps - take a half hour with the faq, and another half hour to set 
up your channels - it's well worth the effort. Once its set up, you will 
probably forget about it. It generally just works. I've got it running on 
three FC boxes and on several other distros as well, and that's been my 
experience. I sub to the SMART list and it's pretty low volume - there are 
some folks having problems, but after you separate out the folks that are 
trying out new features, and the ones that are doing some unusual things, the 
remainder is pretty small. 

-- 
Claude Jones
Brunswick, MD, USA