[plug] RH updates availability?

[Bret Busby]

On Sat, 29 Jun 2002, Bret Busby wrote:

> 
> On Fri, 28 Jun 2002, Steege, Phil E wrote:
> 
> > 
> > I know this does not answer your question, but I submit it as an option.
> > Having a 56K modem only for the web, I also disliked the long unreliable
> > downloads of Redhat updates.
> > The web link below is to a group, in the US, who provide monthly Redhat
> > CDROM's with the latest errata, security and file updates for redhat
> > systems.  I just got their 7.3 update last month.
> > They call it a KRUD (Kevin's Red Hat Uber Distribution) distribution.  Their
> > CD's explain everything needed for each monthly update.
> > 
> > I paid $60.00 US dollars ($5 per month) for a one year subscription.  They
> > charge an additional $5 for Global Priority International shipments.
> > 
> > You may want to investigate it as an option.
> > 
> > It is only for Redhat systems unfortunately, but I could see where someone
> > with high bandwidth access, could create a company doing the same for other
> > popular distributions.
> > 
> > http://www.tummy.com/krud/mailorder.html/body/benefits
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Phil
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bret Busby [mailto:bret at busby.net] 
> > Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 1:28 PM
> > To: PLUG
> > Subject: [plug] RH updates availability?
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > After spending several hours and repeated attempts to download 90MB of
> > packages for updating installed packages on RH7.3, and finally managing to
> > complete the download, the updating was aborted by red hat, with an error
> > message "Free service limited due to high load .... Due to extremely high
> > traffic, access to Red Hat Network is currently limited to subscription
> > customers."
> > 
> > Note: this occurred AFTER the packages were downloaded, and the computer was
> > supposedly installing the more current RPM's, that had been downloaded.
> > 
> > Is this a common occurrence?
> > 
> > Does this mean that RH up2date does not work unless a user has a paid
> > support contract?
> > 
> > Has anyone got up2date to work, with RH 7.3?
> > 
> > 
> 
> Thanks for the reply, Phil.
> 
> I retried again, and, this time it told me that the system was fully
> updated, and that "No new packages are needed".
> 
> A dialogue box told me that the system was currently running kernel
> 2.4.18-3, and that a newer version was installed (2.4.18-5), and that I
> should reboot as soon as possible, to test the newer kernel. Rebooting
> shows the kernel as being 2.4.18-3, at the login prompt, so I do not know
> what happened to the newer kernel that showed as having been installed.
> 
> I also again get the same dialogue box, that shows that the kernel that is
> running, is older than the newest installed kernel. It must have hidden
> the newer kernel from the bootup, or, not really installed the newer
> packages, or something.
> 
> I am now confused. I do not know what up2date has done to the system.
> 
> 

I believe that we may have found the solution to the problem of whether
up2date worked.

The primary symptom was the kernel appearing to have not been updated, as
repeated reboots did not reflect the updated kernel being installed.

After some messing around, due to problems with a Debian install on the
same computer (different partition), for multiple booting, and the
inability of Debian to recognise the RH7.3 partition for lilo, to give the
option of booting into RH7.3 using Debian lilo, we examined the RH7.3 lilo
file, to try to modify the Debian lilo file to be the same. We had to use
a boot floppy, to be able to boot into RH 7.3.

Two things were observed; the first is that up2date, in installing the
updated packages, did not modify lilo, to boot RH 7.3 from the updated
kernel package. The second, is that the RH7.3 lilo file, for the RH7.3
option, pointed to the specific kernel file, eg vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 (which
line in lilo, is what was not updated by up2date).

The fix for the RH7.3 up2date problem, appeared to be simply removing the
version number of the kernel, from the boot line in lilo, so that just
vmlinuz was specified at the end of the path, without the version
number. This appeared to cause the bootup to default to the latest version
of the kernel that was present in the particular directory.

The result is now that the RH 7.3 lilo allows booting into RH7.3 (default,
and, with the latest installed kernel), or Win98, or WinNT4, or Debian,
and the Debian lilo only allows booting into Debian or Win98 or WinNT4.

So, the modified RH7.3 lilo is used, and, the booting options appear to
work okay, so far (have not yet tried booting into Windows, since the
mofifications to the RH7.3 lilo file, but their entries are unchanged, so
should be okay).

So, at this stage, we believe that we have found the solution to the
up2date problem.

Now, we need to try to fix the problems with the Debian install (such as
why GNOME doesn't work properly). One curious thing - the mouse was
incorrectly connected to the COM2 port, but the other three OS's found it
okay, and got it working, but Debian required the mouse to be plugged into
the COM1 port, as Debian was unable to deal with the mouse being plugged
into the COM2 port.

But, Debian on my new(er) system, can wait a bit - I have got it installed 
(more or less), and I still have the rest of the build to do, and I have
RH7.3 apparently working, and Debian is a learning experience, further
down the track, with more time to spare.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

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