Centos – Do CentOS 4 yum Repositories Exist Anywhere

centosyum

I am trying (somewhat desperately) to convert an RHEL 4 server with no RedHat contract to CentOS 4 preparatory to upgrading it to CentOS 5 because "shellshock." I am following the instructions found here: http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/1496-convert-a-rhel4-linux-server-to-a-centos-4-server with appropriate changes for version (4.9) and architecture (i386.)

CentOS has historical files for 4.9 here:http://vault.centos.org/4.9/os/i386/CentOS/RPMS/

I've gotten as far in the instructions as:
yum install yum-plugin-protectbase.noarch yum-plugin-priorities.noarch yum-plugin-fastestmirror.noarch which fails with:

not using ftp, http[s], or file for repos, skipping - 4 is not a valid release or hasnt been released yet
Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: update
Error: Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: update

I've never used yum before and I am a little bit desperate. Is there a way of using the material in vault.centos.org to complete this installation?

(I have tried researching this myself, I know about /etc/yum.repos.d but am very unsure how or whether the material that's available can be made to work for me. Any help will be very much appreciated!)

Edited to add: There is a reposdata directory in vault.centos.org. Not sure what to do with it, though.

Best Answer

Yes, an older repo does exist....again it is beyond EOL...

The location is:

 http://vault.centos.org/4.8/CentOS-Base.repo

Despite it saying v4.8....its version 4.9

I had to do use this repo to get a latest Centos 4 system to recover data from an old application. So this does work.

Enjoy

Related Solutions

Tools for maintaining yum repositories

Install yum-utils (edit: and createrepo).

Since a yum repository is just a directory that you run createrepo(8) against and serve over http, functions you mention like uploading, keeping old versions around etc can be done with your usual tools like the shell, ssh, rsync etc. Or are you after a kind of attractive web-based method of managing a repo? I'm not sure if one exists.

As for updating metadata automatically, perhaps just use cron? Really, if these are your own packages then you should have tested the rpm before placing it in the repo, so having something check automatically if a rpm is invalid might not be needed, but again a regular cron job with rpm --test could tell you.

I'm probably missing some great tools but this has worked for me for our limited needs for years.

Centos yum problems

5.3 is the current version, and it's recommended that you upgrade to that.

http://centosk3.centos.org/centos/5.2/readme

This directory (and version of CentOS) is depreciated.  For normal users,
you should use /5/ and not /5.2/ in your path. Please see this FAQ
concerning the CentOS release scheme:

http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faqid=34

If you know what you are doing, and absolutely want to remain at the 5.2
level, go to http://vault.centos.org/ for packages.

You can modify the repo locations in /etc/yum.repos.d/

From what I understand /5/ should be a link to the latest 5.x version

Edit: Just saw the repo file you posted now.

[updates]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Updates
mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=5.2&arch=$basearch&repo=updates
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/updates/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-5

I don't have a centos machine around to check (don't use it anymore), but I believe that the mirrorlist line there has been modified, it should contain a variable for the version, not an actual number, like in the commented baseurl option.

Replace the 5.2 in the mirrorlist lines like:

mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=updates

With that done you should be able to yum upgrade to the next version. This is what the system should have done by default.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Tools for maintaining yum repositories

Centos yum problems

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