OpenSUSE 13.1 can use newer repository for package update?

English Applications
1

We have a production server running OpenSUSE 13.1.
It is hosting a web application. The server runs Apache web server, PHP (Apache module), Perl (standalone process in background).
We ran zypper update on 4th July 2015 with an applied maintenance window, then it was never ran again.
We are planning to run zypper update again.
Today, in order to prepare for it, I ran zypper list-updates AND zypper refresh but got the below error msgs.
The internet connection was OK as it can ping the outside world.


dmx@aanval:~> sudo zypper refresh
File '/content' not found on medium 'http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.1/repo/oss/'


Abort, retry, ignore? [a/r/i/? shows all options] (a): i
Do you want to disable the repository openSUSE-13.1-1.10 permanently? [yes/no] (no):
Skipping repository 'openSUSE-13.1-1.10' because of the above error.
File '/content' not found on medium 'http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/13.1/repo/non-oss/'


Abort, retry, ignore? [a/r/i/? shows all options] (a): i
Do you want to disable the repository openSUSE-13.1-Non-Oss permanently? [yes/no] (no):
Skipping repository 'openSUSE-13.1-Non-Oss' because of the above error.
File '/repodata/repomd.xml' not found on medium 'http://download.opensuse.org/update/13.1/'


Abort, retry, ignore? [a/r/i/? shows all options] (a): i
Do you want to disable the repository openSUSE-13.1-Update permanently? [yes/no] (no):
Skipping repository 'openSUSE-13.1-Update' because of the above error.
File '/repodata/repomd.xml' not found on medium 'http://download.opensuse.org/update/13.1-non-oss/'


Abort, retry, ignore? [a/r/i/? shows all options] (a): i
Do you want to disable the repository openSUSE-13.1-Update-Non-Oss permanently? [yes/no] (no):
Skipping repository 'openSUSE-13.1-Update-Non-Oss' because of the above error.
Could not refresh the repositories because of errors.
dmx@aanval:~>

I understand 13.1 is now end of support. Is that why OpenSuse removed the 13.1 repository?
Can I add the 13.2 or Leap 42.1 or even Tumbleweed repositories to do “zypper update” and not run into compatibility issues affecting production service?
Of course, when we do zypper update, we will do it in an applied maintenance window.

Jonathan
IT guy from Hong Kong

2

You can not mix in repos from other version with any hope of success.

Yous should update to e.g. 42.2

3

Yes that is why.

No. You should expect issues if you try.

As already recommended to you, updating to a newer Leap version is your best bet. The support for Leap is significantly longer than support for v.13.2 and earlier versions of openSUSE. 13.2 will soon also have support stopped.

There will be so many differences between 13.1 (and indeed 13.2) and the newer Leap packages that I do not recommend trying an “rpmbuild --rebuild some-newer-app-version.src.rpm” approach either. It would be painful, no guarantee that it would work, and likely cause compatibility issues in the long run. Can you mirror your system to a ‘test’/‘development’ PC and then use that to test updates from 13.1 to Leap ?

4

You may also find the old 13.1 repos (not maintained) on the web if you surf around.

For example this link: http://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/discontinued/update/

But again - I recommend you migrate to the newer (and latest) Leap.
.