• Why aren't automatic updates working?
• Adding RHN System Group Admins
• Why do I get error messages about not being able to find the telnet and title commands?
• Configuring up2date for Dag Wieers RPMS
• What hardware will work with RHEL?

I've installed RHEL on my machine and registered it with my activation key, but there are several outstanding errata that aren't getting applied. What's going on?

There are several things that can prevent updates from occurring:

• The machine is not configured to receive udpates automatically in RHN.
• You may have a package "skip list"
• The up2date software may need to be updated.
• The rpm software itself may need to be updated.
• You may have a third-party package dependency that blocks updates.
• up2date may be failing due to a bug or corrupt data.

Check to make sure your machine is configured to receive automatic updates from RHN:

Set the Auto Errata Update property.

1. Log in to RHN.
2. Select a machine (or multiple machines using the System Set Manager)
3. Choose the Properties Tab.
4. Check the Auto Errata Update property.
5. Submit and confirm the change.

Run rhn_check manually to see if this worked.

1. Then, log in to your machine as root.
2. In a terminal window, type:

   rhn_check

If all goes smoothly, rhn_check will contact RHN and resolve any outstanding errata.

Check the Package Skip List:

A skip list is a list of packages that up2date will ignore. By default, kernel packages are always ignored. The problem is that packages that are skipped are still counted as being out of date. To configure the skip list, do this:

1. Type at the command line (requires root password):

    up2date --configure --nox
   

2. Under the Package Exceptions tab, see if there are any package names listed under Package Names to Skip. By default, the kernel placed in the skip list. If you want to make sure you receive all updates, remove any packages listed (including kernel).
3. Save the configuration and exit the up2date configuration tool.
4. At the command prompt in a terminal window, type:

   rhn_check

If packages were being blocked by the skip list, rhn_check should apply any outstanding errata.

Check that the up2date software is up to date:

If you originally installed RHEL 3, Update 1 on your machine, the up2date software may need to be updated manually before updates will be automatically applied. Try this:

1. Log in as root
2. Type:

   up2date -u up2date

3. If up2date package is updated, then log in a root and type the following command at the command prompt in a terminal window:

   rhn_check

The RPM software itself may need to updated:

If your machine is really out of date with dozens or even hundreds of packages that need updates, the RPM software itself may not be working correctly. For instance, up2date may believe that there are missing package dependencies when even the dependent packages are already installed. A good solution to try is to update the RPM system before trying any other updates:

1. Log in as root.
2. At a console prompt, type:

   up2date -u rpm

3. Then try:

   rhn_check

Check to see if there is a package dependency that may be preventing updates:

The easiest way to see if there is a package update dependency issue is to do this:

1. Log is as root
2. Type:

   up2date -u

If there is a package dependency that is preventing updates, up2date should mention it. The solution to a package dependency issue depends entirely on the packages involved. In general, software installed from Red Hat will not have unresolvable dependency problems. Occasionally, third party RPMs may have requirements for specific package versions. If a dependent RPM is then provided by Red Hat, the third party package may block Red Hat updates from occurring. Note that rhn_check will only check package dependencies on packages known to RHN (either provided by Red Hat or in a channel managed by ISU). If a third party package is creating a dependency that is blocking updates, the answer is to either remove the third party RPM, or find a version of the RPM that is consistent with Red Hat updated packages.

Up2date may be failing due to a software problem or corrupted data.

Unfortunately, a frequently observed problem with up2date is that corrupted RPM headers may somehow get installed (from either the RHN proxy or from Red Hat). Luckily, the solution is easy, while diagnosing the corrupted header files is a little tricky. To see if up2date is failing, do this:

1. Log in as root
2. Run

    up2date -u

If up2date gets a segmentation fault, then most likely there is a corrupt up2date RPM header. To zero on where it's failing, run strace:

strace up2date -u

Peruse the last lines of output before the segmenation fault. See if there is a file open call on an RPM header file in /var/spool/up2date

Remove the offending header file (ends with .hdr). Then run up2date again.

 

---

Information on requesting Red Hat Network (RHN) accounts being added as administrators to your RHN system group.

RHN has the ability to assign administration rights to multiple RHN users for a system group. This addition needs to be done by the Iowa State RHN Administrator.

To add other users as admins to your system group, please send a RHN request via Acropolis Services on the Web (ASW):

https://asw.iastate.edu/cgi-bin/acropolis/request/rhn

Please be sure to include their RHN account name in the request.

---

If you have installed the Iowa State Linux packages and use your AFS space as your default home directory, you may start seeing error messages that look like this:

vincent% cd
title: Command not found.
vincent% telnet isua1.iastate.edu
title: Command not found.
/usr/ucb/telnet: Command not found.
title: Command not found.

Fixing this problem

Using your favorite editor, edit the .cshrc.mine file in your home directory. Find the section that looks like this:

# set skip_tty_startup
 
 if ($?DISPLAY) then
 #
 # if Xwindows, make nice xterm titles
 #
 alias cwdcmd 'title "%#%c04 (%n@%m)"'
 alias telnet 'title !:*; /usr/ucb/telnet; cd .'
 cd $PWD
 endif
#

 

and comment out the two lines that start with alias so that it looks like this:

# set skip_tty_startup
 
 if ($?DISPLAY) then
 #
 # if Xwindows, make nice xterm titles
 #
 #alias cwdcmd 'title "%#%c04 (%n@%m)"'
 #alias telnet 'title !:*; /usr/ucb/telnet; cd .'
 cd $PWD
 endif
#

Background information

This is something left over from an older and mostly depreciated group of distributed Unix systems known as Project Vincent. The 'title' command changes the titlebar of your terminal window to some string, and those two lines try to set up commands to 1) make the terminal window title bar reflect the current directory you were in and 2) make the terminal window title bar reflect the name of the machine you were telnetting to if you used the telnet command. Unfortunatly, the title command is not part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and the location the line points to for the telnet command is not where telnet is located at on a RHEL system.

---

Dag Wieers and other members of the RPMForge buildx RPMS for many Red Hat platforms including the RHEL line. You can configure up2date to use their repositories. All you need to do is to add entries to the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources file. More information on how to do this can be found at

http://dag.linux.iastate.edu

---

• A comparison of hardware requirements and limits can be found at 

  http://www.redhat.com/rhel/compare/
  

• Hardware compatability with Red Hat Enterprise Linux can be found at https://hardware.redhat.com/

---