Error(s) I cannot figure out - PLEASE help!

[GMorris]

Hi all,

I've been running Fedora, and it's either version 11 or 12. At this point I'm not sure anymore. My games stopped working, but just about everything else works like it should. I constantly get these messages, which will pop up while I'm working or any time. Here is approximately what it looks like:

Failed to initialize
Failed to initialize packaging backend.

This may occur if other packaging tools are being used simultaneously.

More Details


	
	
There are unfinished transactions remaining. Please run yum-
complete-transaction as root.
 
 

So, I log in as root and run the program as instructed. Then, I get this:

Loaded plugins: presto, refresh-packagekit
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/%24releasever/Everything/i386/os/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404 : http://download
.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/%24releasever/Everything/i386/os/repodata/repomd.xml 
Trying other mirror.
Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: fedora. Please verify its path and try again

ALWAYS the same thing. I suspected maybe the "%24releasever", but don't know how to verify
if that is the problem. I've looked at the ftp site, substituting 11 or 12 for the "%24releasever", and the path is correct. I even wanted to try and find where Linux stores this string and replace the version there, but haven't been able to find it.

Does anyone know what to do to fix this, or IF it can be fixed? Even some suggestions might
help, this is driving me nuts!

Thanks to anyone who may be able to help, and feel free to ask me anything you want to clarify anything I may have left out.

[jselover]

It would appear your /etc/yum.conf file and/or repo files, in /etc/yum.repos.d, need to be corrected.
The '%24releasever' should be '$releasever'

Yum replaces the shell var $releaever with 11, 12, or whatever version number you are using.

'%24' is the string used in a URL to represent a '$' as 0x024h = $. Its possible you cut and pasted something from a web page into one of your yum files, thus replacing the $ with %24 by mistake.

Check /etc/yum.conf and any files in the /etc/yum.repos.d/ dir and replace all '%24' with a '$' sign.
Remember to backup any files, before you edit them.
Hope it helps.

[coopstah13]

fedora 11/12 are both outdated and unsupported, which means you are unable to get updates or use repo

upgrade to latest version

[GMorris]

I tried upgrading, but it won't work because of this same problem. The only other way would be to backup the entire system and install 13 from scratch. Then I (hopefully) wouldn't lose all of my files. I can still go to the ftp site and the repomd.xml is there, as well as the supporting files (at least I am assuming that's what they are). Since I don't have a DVD burner, I'd have to use a LOT of CDs to back this up!

I'll try the previous suggestion (if possible), but I think I've already looked at those files and did not see the %24 part?????

[GMorris]

Attached is yum.conf, gzipped, and the whole yum.conf.d dir, tarred. If you can find anything in these that will help, let me know. Meanwhile, I'll look through them again, but I don't recall ever doing anything major to any of them.

Thanks again,

G.

[coopstah13]

try yum clean all command, then run again

[Draciron]

The clean all command doesn't help much because there is no repository to connect too any more. With Fedora the upgrade option if it still exists fails more often than not. Usually your left with a system that is neither version. You'll get errors never ending until you finally just give it up, format your slash partition and reinstall everything. This is why /home on any system I use as a desktop is always on it's own partition. I can wipe / and keep most of my settings for some of my apps intact.

To check what version of Fedora you are using
cat /etc/issue.net

It will produce results along these lines
Fedora release 12 (Constantine)
Kernel \r on an \m (\l)

13 is still supported but not for all that much longer. You might as well move to 14 or in 6 months or so you'll again be running an unsupported version which is kinda what brought me too these forums in the first place. I am tired of reinstalling Fedora and have given up on my favorite distro because of many things but the lack of a long term support version being the biggest. I used to run installs until the hardware failed and I like it that way.

[jselover]

You are right, your yum files look fine. So, I agree with trying 'yum clean all' command, then try yum again. A cached file may have an error in it.

The repos going back to Fedora 10 are still available, there are just fewer mirrors now, and no updates are being done to 12 or older, and soon 13. After about 4 years, Fedora releases get moved to the archive servers, so even old versions are available, although the rpms harder to get to and haven't changed in years.

I also agree that you should be updating to Fedora 14.

Personally, I update to each even number version, skipping the odds. At work, one of my duties is maintaining a growing number of Fedora systems. Some local, some halfway across the country. I do not re-install to update. There is far too much data and too many settings.

When I did Fedora 6 to 8 updates, I booted from a Fedora 8 DVD and allowed it to update the existing Fedora 6 on the hard drive to Fedora 8 without destroying settings or data. I did most of the updates from 8 to 10, and 10 to 12, the same way, booting from DVD and choosing update existing system. However, I also experimented with using manual rpm commands to update the core rpms, and used yum to finish the updates. That worked especially well for the non-local systems, as I could do the update remotely via ssh.

The preupgrade utility works well on most systems, but it is limited by only supporting ext(2,3, or 4) file systems for /boot and root (/), no raid volumes.

With Fedora 12, the yum (3.2.28-5) command can be used to perform the entire update to 14:
Make sure your system's current rpms meet these requirements:
glibc-2.11.2-3
kernel-2.6.32.23-170
python-2.6.2-8
rpm-4.7.2-2
yum-3.2.28-5

If it does, the first step is to import the rpm signature for Fedora 14:
rpm --import https://fedoraproject.org/static/97A1071F.txt

Second, go to text mode
init 3

Third, update to 14 with yum:
yum --releasever=14 update

The beauty of this is that yum will retrieve all new Fedora 14 yum conf files as its first step, so even if yum doesn't work for 12, it will still work to update to 14.

The download can take quite a while as it will be 1 to 2 Gb, depending on what's installed.
If you have more than 1 system to update, change /etc/yum.conf to have 'keepcache=1' in it. Then you can copy the downloaded rpms from one system to the next over your LAN, which is much quicker than downloading each time.

After the update is done, do a:
yum distro-sync

Reboot and re-install any apps that were un-installed (see below), and you are done.

Now the gotchas:
If the yum command returns 'dependencies not found' errors, look at each error for the rpm whose dependences are not being found. All should be user applications and their libraries. None should be for core rpms (like glibc-*, kernel-*, rpm-*, python-*, or yum-*). It is best if you can remove the rpms that have yum errors, making a note for each one, so you can re-install them after the update. Some may be obsolete, so they may not have Fedora 14 replacements.

Some yum errors will likely be user apps wanting python-2.6, this is because Fedora 14 uses python-2.7. These and other user apps, not required for booting, can be excluded from update and dealt with afterwards by adding the rpm names to the /etc/yum.conf exlcude= line.

The hardware requirements are: at least 10 Gb of free disk (more is better) in the system root, and at least 1Gb of RAM. If you don't have enough disk space, and the system disk gets full during the update, you will have a system in a very un-stable state. If you don't have at least 1Gb of RAM in the system, the update will run out of memory about 1/2 way through, again leaving the system an unstable, but not un-repairable, state.

I have used yum to update more than 30 systems from Fedora 12 to Fedora 14, mixture of 32 and 64 bit, without losing any data.

The most important thing is to get yum to resolve all dependencies before answering 'y' to start downloading. (and thus, the update) Until you answer 'y', the only system mods are the rpms you have removed. There is the yum '--skip-broken' arg, but its use can cause yum to goto in an endless loop. If it doesn't goto into a loop, but does skip packages, if the update fails, you have a lot more unknowns to deal with.

I will not lie, updating a system is a little nerve racking, and the better your pre-update backup plan was, the better you will feel during the few hours the update will take.

For example, my 2 main MythTV boxes have been updated from Fedora 6 to 8, to 10, to 12, and now 14 using methods stated above. During that time, the systems have been in numerous cases, ran on numerous motherboards and processors, and had the disks upgraded many times, without ever being re-installed from scratch. Both have as clean an OS install as you can find anywhere, and both have been running 24/365 (minus the time for physical hardware changes, power outages, moving, etc.) for over 6 years.
Man, I love Linux!

[Draciron]

Had better luck with odd number releases myself. FC2 was OK but FC3 ROCKED. FC4 was unusuable in my opinion. It is the only FC release I ever downgraded from. I tried it on 2 machines and had nothing but misery with it. FC5 however ran like a rock until they ceased updatest FC 6 thru 9 were all solid releases but 10 I tried but didn't like. Stayed with 9 until 11 came out. FC11 ran great but 12 has been problems from day one. Slow and buggy and never really endeared itself too me despite running it nearly it's entire release cycle. I installed it on this machine almost as soon as it became a production release. FC12 has been the only Fedora version I've ever rebooted to get rid of a nagging problem. That's the ONLY Linux desktop machine I've ever rebooted because it was running slow and even logging out and logging back in did not solve the slowness. No xsession errors, no clue in any of the logs. Every 3 months or so I have to reboot or the machine just becomes too slow to use. I've run RH and earlier FC versions for as much as 14 months between reboots and only reason I rebooted then was power outage or security upgrade for the kernel.

[GMorris]

Well guys,

I appreciate all of the info and help, but at this point I've tried just about everything, and it's looking like a backup is in the near future, followed by an upgrade from scratch. I started this with 10G of my HD space, XP occupying the rest of it. Win is useless now, as a trojan corrupted my system files despite Defender and McAfee. What I'll probably end up doing is to back up all personal files, on both systems, make the Linux partition bigger and start practically over. It's just such a painful undertaking to make sure I get EVERYTHING that I need to keep, repartition and start a brand new install after all this time. I'm sick of messing with it. I also discovered that there wasn't any $releasever system variable being set, so I tried setting it manually but that didn't seem to make any difference either. Every time I'd try yum whatever, if it DID get to the repository it would tell me that the repomd.xml file was not configured correctly, leading me to believe that there is something major going on here. Pretty much everything but the games works OK, and I can live with that, it's just that stupid popup that keeps coming up that drives me up the wall!

I truly appreciate all the suggestions and info, but at this point I'm at a loss of what to do except start over. That means reconfiguring all the IP settings, etc., and I don't look forward to it, but I barely have 1G of disk space between the two OS's and don't dare try an upgrade now. I did discover that I have version 12 now, but not sure how I got it since I started with 11. What can I say? I've been using Linux on and off for many years now, but haven't achieved guru status by a long shot even though I can use scripts and program a good bit with Java. If I can't do anything with this, it's time to start over!

G.