Unable to find active update repository for 10.3

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1

I am trying to update four OpenSUSE 10.3 servers. This worked once on one server, but I have been unable to repeat that success. I use yast’s Online Update to select repositories, but at the end of the repository refresh they keep coming back with ‘No active update source is available. Exit Online Update now?’

I get this error: Download failed: File /repodata/repomod.xml not found on media: http://download.openesuse.org/update/10.3/

Am I doing something wrong? It appears to connect to remote repositories, but always fails. Is it realistic for me to expect to update 10.3, or is it a lost cause? I am not ready to jump to 11 yet, but I am required to update them. I am a newb, so I am not clear on the process. Are package versions locked in place for specific versions of OpenSUSE? If so, how can I find out what the final versions were for 10.3 so that I can at least tell my auditors that they are as up-to-date as they can be?

Thanks,

Larry

2

only because it happens often: are you running openSUSE 10.3 or SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3? if the latter, seek help at
forums.novell.com

otoh: openSUSE 10.3 has been unsupported by this community since
November of last year… cite: http://en.opensuse.org/Lifetime

that means there have been NO automatically applied security patches
since then…and there will be none…

so, if you have not been following the security notices and manually
bring your servers up to the latest…then i’d advise you to quickly
make sure they are not accessible by external and/or untrusted persons…

NOW: i say all of that from my personal system running 10.3, with
which i’m not the least bit concerned…but, i do take a few sensible
precautions [and i don’t run ANY services that allow entry from
outside the machine…i can’t even ssh/telnet/ftp/etc in from a
machine sharing the same router…so…]…

and i have no auditors looking over my shoulder!!

the latest versions of all 10.3 software may be available at one or
more of the following, be SURE and look for the update repos…(there
were hundreds [thousands?] of patches issued over the life of 10.3
that will not be in the oss or non-oss repos)

i can NOT vouch for the integrity of the packages in the following
locations…maybe someone else can, but i can’t…i’ve not checked
them and i’ve not added anything to my system since the official
community repos went off line:

http://ftp.tu-ilmenau.de/Mirrors/ftp.suse.com/update/
http://tinyurl.com/nyjdxy
http://ftp5.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/opensuse/discontinued/
ftp://ftp.hosteurope.de/mirror/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/discontinued/i386/
http://tinyurl.com/yf7l7ub

be careful out there!

be advised: currently openSUSE has a useful life of 18 months or less,
if you need longer you need to look to the commercial offering of SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server, or another distro with a supported longer
life…OR patch them yourself

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

3

That was exactly what I was looking for! Especially about the ‘official repositiories went off-line in November’ These servers are an application server cluster for a proprietary front-end, there is no access from the outside. They were set up by our core system vendor and I am learning how to manage them. I assume that there may be incompatabilities between packages that run on 11.3 and maybe won’t on 10.3. How can I find out the versions of my installed packages (to determine if I need to update them) at the end of 10.3’s life? I am sure i will be asked to get them up-to-date while we prepare to deploy SLES 11.3.

Thank you very much,

Larry

4

at the end of 10.3’s life? I am sure i will be asked to get them up-to-date while we prepare to deploy SLES 11.3.

To re-ask a question already asked, are you currently running openSUSE or SLES ?

5

Using the above repos will bring the OS up to date to the LAST update for 10.3. In general you can run into serious problems if you try to update application packages beyond that point. Some of the reasons being that newer apps may depend on newer libraries that may break other software you have installed. Also newer packages and libraries may depend on newer Kernel API’s and functions. So you end up chasing your tail. It can be done but requires serious expertize. To be honest I’d never use OpenSuse in a serious commercial environment that required long term maintenance requirements. That is what the commercial Novell OS’s are for they have 5+ years maintenance guarantee. An OpenSuse version only lasts about 18 months.

6

On 2010-08-12 16:06, NukeMeSlow wrote:
>
> I am trying to update four OpenSUSE 10.3 servers. This worked once on
> one server, but I have been unable to repeat that success. I use yast’s
> Online Update to select repositories, but at the end of the repository
> refresh they keep coming back with ‘No active update source is
> available. Exit Online Update now?’
>
> I get this error: Download failed: File /repodata/repomod.xml not found
> on media: http://download.openesuse.org/update/10.3/

It will not work, there are no update repos for 10.3 as it has been discontinued months ago, perhaps
a year.

You have to find a mirror that still stores the discontinued repo, and update from there - but only
to the last update published when 10.3 went off official support.

…

> 10.3 so that I can at least tell my auditors that they are as up-to-date
> as they can be?

Auditors? openSUSE 10.3?

You are in deep trouble. >:-)

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

7

NukeMeSlow wrote:

>
> That was exactly what I was looking for! Especially about the ‘official
> repositiories went off-line in November’ These servers are an
> application server cluster for a proprietary front-end, there is no
> access from the outside. They were set up by our core system vendor and
> I am learning how to manage them. I assume that there may be
> incompatabilities between packages that run on 11.3 and maybe won’t on
> 10.3. How can I find out the versions of my installed packages (to
> determine if I need to update them) at the end of 10.3’s life? I am sure
> i will be asked to get them up-to-date while we prepare to deploy SLES
> 11.3.
>
> Thank you very much,
>
> Larry
>
>
Are you really sure you speak about opensuse 10.3 and not SLES 10?
Esp. because now you mention SLES 11.3 (which does not exist) it is SLES 11
and is not the same as opensuse 11.3.

Check with the command

cat /etc/SuSE-release

what you really have now.

If you have sles 10 you should be fine because this has long term support
and you can ask novell howto setup the upates correctly.

Otherwise if it is opensuse don’t mess around with an end of life version
(you are running servers!!). Upgrade! Test it with one machine first.

You will find people here who can help you (I am no sysadmin). Open a
special thread for that to get their interest.

8

On 2010-08-12 19:06, NukeMeSlow wrote:
>
> That was exactly what I was looking for! Especially about the ‘official
> repositiories went off-line in November’ These servers are an
> application server cluster for a proprietary front-end, there is no
> access from the outside. They were set up by our core system vendor and
> I am learning how to manage them. I assume that there may be
> incompatabilities between packages that run on 11.3 and maybe won’t on
> 10.3. How can I find out the versions of my installed packages (to
> determine if I need to update them) at the end of 10.3’s life? I am sure
> i will be asked to get them up-to-date while we prepare to deploy SLES
> 11.3.

To learn the versions of the installed version of anything, do “rpm -qa”. To get more info from that
command, use the option “–queryformat”. For example:

rpm -q -a --queryformat "%{INSTALLTIME} %{INSTALLTIME:day}
%{BUILDTIME:day} %-30{NAME} %15{VERSION}-%-7{RELEASE} %{arch}
%25{VENDOR}%25{PACKAGER}
" | sort | cut --fields=“2-” | less -S

which will list sorted by date with several fields of interest to me. To learn of the available
options, use “–querytags”.

If you need the versions of the updates before updating them, look up the repo in a web browser, and
look up the security announces in the archive of that mail list.

One more note: there is no such thing as “SLES 11.3”.

Please do not confuse SLES with openSUSE. There is SLES 9, 10, 11… there is no SLES 11.3. There
are service packs for SLES, and some may refer to SLES 11.1 instead of specifying “SLES 11 SP 1”.

On the other hand, there is “openSUSE 11.0”, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3 (the latest).

SLES stands for “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server”, and it is a comercial product - and by the way, if
you are going for a auditor, and use some propietary thing, they will be very probably expecting
SLES and not openSUSE, because what everybody certify is SLES, not openSUSE.

So, back to your original post. Are you sure you are not using SLES 10 SP 3?

If so, this is the wrong forum.

If you are indeed using openSUSE, then do not update to anything unless your provider tells you so.
You say the cluster is not accessible from the outside, so leave it as it is.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

9

Thanks folks, this has been very educational. We are running OpenSUSE 10.3. I understand the versioning now and we will likely soon move to SLES 11. I appreciate your newb patience.

Larry

10

NukeMeSlow wrote:
> I appreciate your newb patience.

happy to be helpful…you might wanna touch base with the gurus over
at novell.com about your transition from openSUSE 10.3 to SLES 11, i
would think they should/could/will be helpful in that…

i guess they have experience there…some others here might…i don’t…

–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]