Mandriva repo

If you've ever used Debian, you'll know that the killer feature is apt-get, which makes software installation and upgrades amazingly easy. There is a common perception that this solves all the nasty dependency problems that RPM-based distributions suffer from, and therefore RPM sucks.

Most commands will look just like the above, with different ftp/http locations and possibly different paths. There are a few interesting but less commonly used options:

--distrib
    Add all media from an installation medium
--update
    Add an "update" medium (for MandrakeUpdate)
--from url
    Use the url for a mirror list of possible locations

To update mandriva repo, use this command. To upgrade from 2008.0 to 2008.1, just chage the number

1.Database Main:
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi.addmedia --probe-hdlist Main http://ftp.riken.go.jp/Linux/mandrake/official/2008.0/i586/media/main/release/ with media_info/hdlist.cz with media_info/pubkey

2.Database Contrib:
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi.addmedia --probe-hdlist Contrib http://ftp.riken.go.jp/Linux/mandrake/official/2008.0/i586/media/contrib/release/ with media_info/hdlist.cz with media_info/pubkey

3.Database Non-Free:
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi.addmedia --probe-hdlist Non-Free http://ftp.riken.go.jp/Linux/mandrake/official/2008.0/i586/media/non-free/release/ with media_info/hdlist.cz with media_info/pubkey

Repo PLF, ketik perintah ini sebagai Super User di Konsole:
1.Database Free:
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi.addmedia --probe-hdlist PLF-Free http://mdk.linux.org.tw/ftp/pub/plf/mandriva/2008.0/free/release/binary/i586/

2.Database Non-Free:
[root@localhost ~]# urpmi.addmedia --probe-hdlist PLF-NonFree http://mdk.linux.org.tw/ftp/pub/plf/mandriva/2008.0/non-free/release/binary/i586/

Run urpmi --auto-select.

urpmi --auto-select -v just updates the basic "stuff" to get you going, but it doesn't update all the packages you installed to 2008 (i.e. a lot of the PLF stuff didn't update).

Then, reboot (not before you run it, but after).

This is pretty damned cool.
Curiosity got this cat so to speak, so I've pulled out my MDV 2008.0 hard drive and gone for an upgrade on it using a combination of two methods mentioned here.

1) Back up the current urpmi.cfg
2) Change the repos mentioned in urpmi.cfg to 2008.1
3) Run urpmi.update -a to verify repos
4) urpmi --auto-update -v

(after backing up the /home partition, of course)

So far, all's well with it. It's actually removing more than it's adding, which is a good thing.
We'll see after it's done and I've rebooted how it turns out.

Yes, it is possible to upgrade Mandriva online. I have done it for several years now, even before Mandriva was Mandriva Smile. Yesterday, I upgraded my Mandriva 2008.0 installs to Mandriva 2008.1 Spring. There where some problems but no show stoppers.

Next I had to configure the repositories for the 2008.1 version. The safe, better and easy method to accomplish this is to remove the old repositories and add the new ones.

I used an alternative method. It's faster but dangerous. Edited the /etc/urpmi/urpmi.cfg and replaced all "2008.0" strings in the URLs with "2008.1" strings. Then run "urpmi.update -a" and check the changes for errors.

Now the repositories are ready and it's time to do the upgrade. Run "urpmi --auto-update -noclean". Depending on what is installed in your system, it will ask a few question when there are various packages that can satisfy the safe "dependence". I may also ask do uninstall some conflicting packages.

I used the "-noclean" to prevent the urpmi from deleting the rpm that it downloads. I will use them to upgrade other systems after I have tested everything. It will save time and bandwidth.

Now reboot and cross your fingers.

I had several problems while upgrading.

The first problem was that I did not have enough space in /var partition so the upgrade process stopped in the middle. I just had to increase the /var space and rerun the command "urpmi --auto-update -noclean". The "-noclean" switch prevented urpmi from cleaning the cache so all the previously downloaded RPMs where still there saving time and bandwidth. This problem was obviously my mistake.

The second problem was that the package tetex was damaged in the repository. I had to download that package from another repository and place it in the cache. Problem solved. I have encountered this problem before when making package updates. The people that make me mirrors should make a final check on them to avoid these problem.

The third problem was a devel package (libfontconfig-devel if my memory is correct) that was causing problems. I uninstalled it and several others that depended on it and the problem was solved. After the install I reinstalled the packages I had removed without problems. Don't exactly know what was the cause, maybe a dependency resolution bug in urpmi or a maybe package with some incorrectly defined dependency.

This process updated ~1300 packages in my system and I am now testing the system to see if there are any problems. If every thing works correctly I update all other Mandriva systems.

My final thoughts on the upgrade process. Upgrading Mandriva 2008.0 to 2008.1 using online repositories was easy (for me at least) even if not problem free.

The following sections listed on this page are for RPM's built for Mandriva Linux 2008.1 i586 only!


Importing The SoS Packager Keys:

rpm --import http://seerofsouls.com/keys/hawkwind.asc

rpm --import http://seerofsouls.com/keys/benja.asc

Important KDE Installation Information

Please read Upgrading/Installing KDE before proceeding any further with the installation of any KDE RPM's from SoS in the sections below.

Below are the commands to add each individual source to your urpmi or smartpm database.

It is highly recommend that you copy and paste the commands below for accurate addition to your urpmi or smartpm database.

2008.1 Urpmi Addmedia Commands

urpmi.addmedia 'SoS-Main' 'http://seerofsouls.com/mandriva/2008.1/i586/main/'

urpmi.addmedia 'SoS-Contrib' 'http://seerofsouls.com/mandriva/2008.1/i586/contrib/'