yum error

I just got the following error while trying to update the system:

# yum update
Loaded plugins: langpacks, refresh-packagekit
adobe-linux-x86_64                             |  951 B  00:00:00
fedora/19/x86_64/metalink                      |  25 kB  00:00:00
Could not parse metalink https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=fedora-19&arch=x86_64 error was
No repomd file
Error: File /var/cache/yum/x86_64/19/fedora/metalink.xml does not exist

As seen from the output, the problem is with some Fedora mirror. After googling for a solution and trying different fixes, none of which worked for me, I finally edited /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo, commented out the line mirrorlist and uncommented baseurl line. After that, everything worked.

To conclude this post, the problem is with some mirror picked by yum.

Google Chrome yum repository...

Yesterday I noticed that yum repository on Google servers with packages for Chrome doesn't work. I see this in yum output when I run update process:

google-chrome                                            |  951 B     00:00 !!!

Note that three exclamation marks at the end! Also, once I received one  other error message, but I didnt' write it down, so I don't remember exactly what it was. Anyway, checking manually URL of the repository shows that it is not available:

# lftp http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/x86_64
cd: Access failed: 404 Not Found (/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/x86_64)

But, it turns out that there is no linux repository at all:

# lftp http://dl.google.com/linux/
cd: Access failed: 404 Not Found (/linux)

I did some Googling and what puzzles me is that there is nothing about this change. I found several posts in the past that the repository isn't available, but that was over a year ago, and in the mean time repository was restored. Also, there are some more recent posts, but again, those were solved!

I checked my update logs and found that the last update was on July, 27th, so is it possible that the URL will be restored as it was in the past?

CentOS... something is happening!

I just noticed that RPM packages from RHEL 6.1 appeared on mirrors. Actually, they announced it few days earlier but that was sooner that I was expecting. :)

There is a small catch. In order for yum to be able to catch those packages you'll have to add new repository. Namely, CentOS team decided to go with a mechanism they call Continuous updates. In that way they'll try to be faster, but, time will tell if it will work or not.

The quickest way to do that is to run the following command:

rpm -ivh ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/centos.org/6/cr/i386/RPMS/centos-release-cr-6-0.el6.centos.i686.rpm

or for 64-bit systems:

rpm -ivh ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/mirrors/centos.org/6/cr/x86_64/RPMS/centos-release-cr-6-0.el6.centos.x86_64.rpm

This will install necessary data for yum. Then, just run 'yum update' and that's it!

Still, we'll have to wait a bit more for 6.1, and especially for FreeIPA 2 that I'm waiting for!