When I select Applications > Add/Remove Software, I always get the following error,

Unable to retrieve software information in the form of a pop up box and I say OK, I'm back to the desktop. I'm unable to add or remove software in my Fedora. WHY is this? Please anyone help me!

I have Fedora core 5 along with Windows on my system.

It could mean that it is unable to connect to the repositories--is your internet connection working?

Also, check to see what repositories are enabled. On my FC7 install, this is in /etc/yum.repos.d

Why do I need to connect to the repositories when I want to install a new software. By the way, I don't have any internet connection.

I am sorry to tell you that pirut uses yum. so you need to change you /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo
to
I used kwrite to edit mine. I have restored it like 5 times after that.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in the Fedora forum and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I'm not understanding what you are trying to say. Can you please elaborate that clearly??

What almost000 is saying is that by default, Linux expects to update from the latest version across the internet.
If you want to get Sw from your CD, alter your /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo file as per his example, so it'll look on the CD drive instead.

because that's where the software is.... (As noted, you can get some things on the install CD or DVD.)

any way to get one?---Linux can be pretty painful without internet access.

Okay, what if I have the same problem and I do have a working internet connection?

I've installed Fedora 7 on a VMware virtual machine running under XP SP 2. I'm unsuccessful adding or removing applications. I am a DHCP client, and I'm successfully pulling an IP address and DNS adresses from the company's DHCP server.

I've configured the proxy settings as follows:

In Fedora, I clicked on System, Preferences, Internet and Network, Network Proxy.

For HTTP Proxy and Secure HTTP Proxy, I entered the name of our proxy server and the port using the same entries I use successfully for FF and IE on my XP system.

In Details, I entered my Windows domain username in both with and without a preceding ' domain\ '. It doesn't seem to make any difference.

These are the only changes I've made since the installation.

I installed Fedora from an F-7-i386-DVD.iso file. When I attempt to run Applications / Add/Remove Software, it appears the application is looking at the Internet instead of the .iso. I get at Retrieving Software Information window with a progress bar that doesn't got past 20% or so. Eventually I get the error "Unable to retrieve software information. This could be caused by not having a network connection available." I remember from my previous attempts with FC5 that the Add/Remove wants to look at an Internet repository for software. (I was hoping F7 would look to the installation source before hitting the net, but apparently this isn't the case.) I suspect the proxy settings are also causing the problem with Add/Remove.

Have you tried almost000's suggestion ie amend repo file to look at your CD/DVD drive?

Not yet, for a couple of reasons.

I've got an internet connection, so I'd like to make it work.
I don't know what 'pirut' or 'yum' are, so I didn't realize his message applied to my problem.

I'll try it, but I'd still like to know what I'm doing wrong with the proxy server settings.

Thanks.

yum is a cmd line sw installer/updater/remover. Need to run as root.
Cmd line approach may give you more detailed error msgs, also see /var/log eg /var/log/messages.
I recommend using
tail -f /var/log/messages
in an x-term, then try again and see what msgs occur and post them.
Also, is there a logfile in VMWare or XP you can check?

If the CD/DVD drive method works, that'll definitely remove one possibiblity of error, although I agree it sounds like a Network issue.
I don't know if you can do that update from within VMWare, maybe there's a setting that needs fixing.

Apparently the correct command to mount the .ISO is

mount /dev/cdrom-sr1 /mnt

Since that lets me see the contents listed under /mnt. Based on that, what should the baseurl line look like? I've tried

baseurl=file:///mnt

and

baseurl=file:///dev/cdrom-sr1

but both result in the good old "Unable to retrieve software information" error for "Add/Remove Software". I'm also still looking for what I have to do to get "Add/Remove" and "Software Updater" to access the Internet from behind my corporate firewall.

Thanks.

Pirut is Add/Remove Programs. yum is Yellowdog Updater Modified. I don't know how to fix what you have wrong now. I like using the terminal to load apps its faster for me.