Two quick questions about repositories.

English Install/Boot/Login
1

1: What is the “Main Update Repository”, alias download.opensuse.org-tumbleweed, for? When I look for packages from it, I don’t find any.


> sudo zypper se -is --repo "download.opensuse.org-tumbleweed"
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
No matching items found.

Does it need to be enabled?

2: For a user in the USA, is it worth installing the MirrorCache package? It wasn’t installed by default on my Tumbleweed system.

Thanks,

Gene

2

There usually are no package there.

However – occasionally there is a problem, and an update needs to get out urgently without waiting for the usual OpenQA testing. So that update package is put in the update repo. Maybe you can think of it as the “quick and dirty fix repo”.

And yes, you should enable that repo.

As for using mirror-cache? I don’t have a clear answer. I am not using it, and I only rarely run into issues with the repos.

3

Thanks for the information. Eventually, a package pushed through download.opensuse.org-tumbleweed will be replaced by a package that went through OpenQA testing. So what I’m seeing is expected.

There are some web pages that describe MirrorCache as an upgrade to mirrorbrain. It reads like it manages mirrors by trying to use the ones closest to the box being updated. I’m curious if anybody has tested it to determine if it actually makes updating faster, since installing it adds 81 new packages, totalling 52.1 MiB.

Gene

4

Hi
I use mirrorcache here (Leap and Tumbleweed)… all good

5

Yes, that’s correct.

I cannot really comment of mirror-cache, since I have not used it. I have the impression that mirror-brain does not work well with “https” repos, and mirror-cache fixes that.

6

So you want to run your own mirror in your garage? Kudos for that, the more the better.
But I get a feeling that’s not want you looking for. To use a download redirector run with MirrorCache, you’ll point your openSUSE mirrors to https://mirrorcache-us.opensuse.org/. Try and see if if works for you.

7

Your second point is what I’d like to implement. So I install MirrorCache, read up on it and point my mirrors at the link you gave? I’ll try that tomorrow.

Thanks,

Gene

8

The point is, MirrorCache is completely transparent to users. Users won’t install MirrorCache.

9

You want to have these as a minimum:

**i3-4130:~ #** zypper lr -uEP 
#  | Alias                            | Name                                         | Enabled | GPG Check | Refresh | Priority | URI 
---+----------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
 8 | packman                          | packman                                      | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   90     | http://ftp.fau.de/packman/suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ 
 3 | download.opensuse.org-non-oss    | Haupt-Repository (NON-OSS)                   | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   99     | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/non-oss/ 
** 4 | download.opensuse.org-oss        | Haupt-Repository (OSS)                       | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   99     | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/ **
 5 | download.opensuse.org-tumbleweed | Hauptaktualisierungs-Repository              | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   99     | http://download.opensuse.org/update/tumbleweed/ 
**i3-4130:~ #**

Resolve addresses:

**i3-4130:~ #** curl -I http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/x86_64/MozillaFirefox-95.0.2-1.3.x86_64.rpm 
HTTP/1.1 302 Found 
**Date**: Thu, 13 Jan 2022 06:13:38 GMT 
**Server**: Apache 
**X-MirrorBrain-Mirror**: rsync.opensuse.org 
**X-MirrorBrain-Realm**: country 
**Link**: <http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/x86_64/MozillaFirefox-95.0.2-1.3.x86_64.rpm.meta4>; rel=describedby; type="application/metalink4+xml" 
**Link**: <http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/x86_64/MozillaFirefox-95.0.2-1.3.x86_64.rpm.torrent>; rel=describedby; type="application/x-bittorrent" 
**Link**: <https://rsync.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/x86_64/MozillaFirefox-95.0.2-1.3.x86_64.rpm>; rel=duplicate; pri=1; geo=de 
**Link: <http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/opensuse/tumbleweed/repo/oss/**x86_64/MozillaFirefox-95.0.2-1.3.x86_64.rpm>; rel=duplicate; pri=2; geo=de 
**Link**: <http://ftp.rz.uni-wuerzburg.de/linux/opensuse/tumbleweed/repo/oss/x86_64/MozillaFirefox-95.0.2-1.3.x86_64.rpm>; rel=duplicate; pri=3; geo=de 
**Link**: <http://mirror1.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/ftp.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/x86_64/MozillaFirefox-95.0.2-1.3.x86_64.rpm>; rel=duplicate; pri=4; geo=de 
**Link**: <https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/tumbleweed/repo/oss/x86_64/MozillaFirefox-95.0.2-1.3.x86_64.rpm>; rel=duplicate; pri=5; geo=de 
**Digest**: MD5=690ylGNkVNTHCTTLToHJ3g== 
**Digest**: SHA=S/hnbbOQry5GbaYDYG+TtoEqPqM= 
**Digest**: SHA-256=uCJjUfRbcx+Ml/RYvujhpW4UJUIo/jFifJ0EEY26y5M= 
**Location**: https://rsync.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/x86_64/MozillaFirefox-95.0.2-1.3.x86_64.rpm 
**Content-Type**: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 

**i3-4130:~ #**

MirrorBrain transparently replaces the URI by a link listed above. In case of trouble bypass it. Replace e.g. http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/ by Index of /opensuse/tumbleweed/repo/oss.

10

To the OP. Please be aware that this response:

is valid for Tumbleweed (which you indicated that you use it). It is however not true for Leap. In Leap all updates during the lifetime of a version come through the Update repos. But because Tumbleweed is a new version every snapshot, the Update repos are not normally used, except as explain by @nrickert.