[SOLVED] CentOS 5 updates fail - no mirror

[charlie205]

When I try to run the updates on my CentOS 5 box (through the GUI software update utility) I get the error "no more mirrors to try" .

This is strange, because the utility tells me there are many updates available. How would it know there are updates available if there are no mirrors to connect to?

[Rubberman]

I have never had much luck with the CentOS/RHEL GUI software update utility, so I always run yum from a terminal window. Open a terminal window (command line) and execute the command (assuming you are not root): sudo yum update

That should pull up all the updates that are currently available for your system. It you haven't updated for awhile, then you will get a LOT of them - more than you want to process probably. After all, the system was updated to 5.3 just a week and a half ago. If you need to, answer no to the question to proceed or not, and rerun the command with a specified module name, such as: sudo yum update 'kernel*' ---- That will just update the kernel, then you can update other stuff as necessary. It will probably find a bunch of dependents to update when you do that as well. Just answer yes to the continue query, and off you go.

FWIW, I recommend updating your system on a fairly regular basis (once a week at least). That way you get the latest security and stability updates. Occasionally, when you do that, some bits will fail to update due to missing or dated dependencies, which usually happens when some pieces that are interdependent are not posted simultaneously to the update mirrors. Just rerun yum with the modules you need updated, skipping the parts that failed the dependency tests.

[charlie205]

Thanks for the reply. I get the feeling things aren't operating they way they are supposed to operate. Something seems wrong. As I said, when I run the updates through the GUI I get the above error (when trying to download the 161 available updates).

When I try to run the updates via the shell, I get:

[root@hostname ~]# yum install update
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: updates.interworx.info
* updates: centos.mirror.nac.net
* addons: mirror.atlanticmetro.net
* extras: mirror.anl.gov
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
No package update available.
Nothing to do


So one package manger says there are many updates available, but won't download them, and the other says there are none available.

I get the feeling this is a mirror/repo configuration problem. Any idea?

[Rubberman]

Actually, I think it means that your system is up-to-date. It is quite possible that the GUI software update utility is not sync'd with yum/rpm. You can get a list of all packages available, including versions, state (installed, or which repository they are found in), etc with the command: yum list

BTW, which software updater GUI are you running? I just check with mine, from the KMenu->System->Software Updater tool, and it tells me that there is nothing to update, so I think mine is at this point sync'd with yum.

[matonb]

Hi charlie205,

Your yum command is wrong for what your trying to do:

[root@hostname ~]# yum install update

Is asking yum to install the package update.

The response from yum in this case is misleading because you've asked for the package update.

No package update available.

Actually means it didn't find a package called update, not that no updates are available

you just want to update everything so:

[root@hostname ~]# yum update

Is what you're actually after.

HTH

[Rubberman]

[root@hostname ~]# yum update

Is what you're actually after.

Doh!. I missed that! You are so correct! Must be one of those "senior" moments.

[matonb]

Doh!. I missed that! You are so correct! Must be one of those "senior" moments.

Happens to us all, "senior moments" aren't always related to age

[charlie205]

my bad, that was a typo and i copied and pasted the output without realizing it. I should have said:

root@host # yum update

gives me:

...
Downloading Packages:
(1/1): kernel-2.6.18-128. 100% |=========================|  15 MB    00:36     
http://centos.mirror.nac.net/5.3/upd....el5.i686.rpm: [Errno -1] Package does not match intended download
Trying other mirror.
http://ftp.lug.udel.edu/pub/centos/5....el5.i686.rpm: [Errno 9] Requested Range Not Satisfiable
Trying other mirror.
http://mirrors.rit.edu/centos/5.3/up....el5.i686.rpm: [Errno 9] Requested Range Not Satisfiable
Trying other mirror.
http://mirror.newnanutilities.org/pu....el5.i686.rpm: [Errno 9] Requested Range Not Satisfiable
Trying other mirror.
http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/dis....el5.i686.rpm: [Errno 9] Requested Range Not Satisfiable
Trying other mirror.
http://mirror.stanford.edu/yum/pub/c....el5.i686.rpm: [Errno 9] Requested Range Not Satisfiable
Trying other mirror.

Error Downloading Packages:
  kernel - 2.6.18-128.1.6.el5.i686: failure: RPMS/kernel-2.6.18-128.1.6.el5.i686.rpm from updates: [Errno 256] No more mirrors to try.

What is the "request range" error about?

(BTW...I checked the firewall logs (on the network firewall, that is) and I don't see any blocked traffic. It's apparently using only TCP 80, so that's not the problem.)

[Rubberman]

It's possible that you hit the mirror at one of those moments when it was being updated. Similar (but different) errors have occured for me in the past. Usually waiting an hour or two has cleared them up.

[matonb]

I would hazard a guess that your behind a proxy server?

In which case you can try with the --noplugins option

yum --noplugins update

If that still doesn't work, pick a specific proxy as well, I modified /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo to achieve this.

[updates]
name=CentOS-5 - Updates
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=5&arch=i386&repo=updates
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/updates/i386/
baseurl=http://archive.cs.uu.nl/mirror/Linux/centos/5/updates/i386/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-5
exclude=postgresql*[/CODE]