At first I thought it was my update applet that wasn't working properly. I kept getting this message: It's impossible to retrieve the list of new packages from the media 'updates'. Either this update media is misconfigured, and in this case you should use the software media manager to remove it an re-add it in order to reconfigure it, either [sic] it is currently unreadable and you should retry later.

Hmmmm. So I tried getting updates through configure computer > software > install. I also tried media and update from that menu. Same message. Next, I tried to add update again (luckily didn't delete the original) and ran into the same problem.

So I guess whatever mirror (have no idea what these words mean--am just slinging them around without comprehension) site is down? This has been going on for about 24 hours now, so I'm just wondering what's happening.

I suppose I could be patient and wait another day to see what's what with the updates. But it's much more fun to whine and complain instead.

Oh, did I mention I'm using discovery 10.1?

N Crocodile tears, you understand

This forum has a sticky thread, one of the first of the forum that talks about rpm packages and software installation on mandrake, you should read it.

I beliave that configuring urpmi correctly would solve your problem. Google "easy urpmi", go there to learn how to do so.

Also, you bought a Mandrake version with support. You really could call them (or contect by whatever way) and ask them to solve your problem.

Sorry, should have been more specific. The update applet has been working fine up until now--about 3 or 4 months. And, joy, it's working again today, which seems to imply (to this uneducated soul) that the problem was at the other end, not my end.

Alas, my support has run out, and I was told it was OK to ask questions here? Perhaps I was misinformed? Please let me know and I'll slink away into the night. Am I right in assuming that your reference to a "sticky thread" means that I should have searched before posting to see if there was an answer? I did. And nothing seemed to fit my circumstances. But, then, I'm such a techno-idiot that I could have missed what would have been obvious to someone else.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to set me straight, and sorry if I offended.

My new problem is for the first time I'm being asked to DO something about the updates I've just downloaded and installed, to wit: 1) Remove.rpmnew, 2) use .rpmnew as main file or 3) do nothing. This has something to do with shorewall, which I presume is a sort of firewall. I'm also assuming that rpm has something to do with my update applet and what I'm being asked is do I want to remove the new one just installed, use it as the main one instead of the old one, or keep both on the machine. There's a LOT of stuff in the boxes above, none of which makes any sense to me. I've copied it to a .swx doc, but have no idea how to attach it. Seems far too long (8 pp.) to cut and paste into this message.

Yikes. " Do nothing" has a certain je ne sais quoi about it, so maybe I'll go that route.

N

It is always ok to ask here :^)

No, sticky thread means a thread that is always the first thread on the forum, no mather what. In fact the first thread in this forum is called: News: Installing .rpm and .tar.gz

This is what I was referring to. I just pointed it because it is a very instructive thread, that´s all.

I don´t feel offended in any way. But thanks for your concern and your politeness.

Why don´t you paste just a small piece of it so we can know what exactly this is? I don´t remember ever receiving such a message ...

A paraphrase of the message I got (now lost in the mists of time) seemed to be asking me to make some choices about things that made little sense to me, so I chose the 'do nothing' button, on the theory that eventually I'd figure out what it was all about and could then go into configure computer>software>media (rpm) and do what ought to have been done in the first place. Above these choice buttons were three windows. Here's the first glob in the top window:

# Shorewall 2.0 -- Interfaces File
#
# /etc/shorewall/interfaces
#
# You must add an entry in this file for each network interface on your
# firewall system.
#
# Columns are:
#
# ZONE Zone for this interface. Must match the short name
# of a zone defined in /etc/shorewall/zones.
#
# If the interface serves multiple zones that will be
# defined in the /etc/shorewall/hosts file, you should
# place "-" in this column.
#
# INTERFACE Name of interface. Each interface may be listed only
# once in this file. You may NOT specify the name of
# an alias (e.g., eth0:0) here; see
# http://www.shorewall.net/FAQ.htm#faq18
#
# You may specify wildcards here. For example, if you
# want to make an entry that applies to all PPP
# interfaces, use 'ppp+'.
#
# There is no need to define the loopback interface (lo)
# in this file.

And it goes on for about 8 pp.
Here's the first glob in the next window:

#
# Shorewall 2.0 -- Interfaces File
#
# /etc/shorewall/interfaces
#
# You must add an entry in this file for each network interface on your
# firewall system.
#
# Columns are:
#
# ZONE Zone for this interface. Must match the short name
# of a zone defined in /etc/shorewall/zones.
#
# If the interface serves multiple zones that will be
# defined in the /etc/shorewall/hosts file, you should
# place "-" in this column.
#
# INTERFACE Name of interface. Each interface may be listed only
# once in this file. You may NOT specify the name of
# an alias (e.g., eth0:0) here; see
# http://www.shorewall.net/FAQ.htm#faq18
#
# You may specify wildcards here. For example, if you
# want to make an entry that applies to all PPP
# interfaces, use 'ppp+'.
#
# There is no need to define the loopback interface (lo)
# in this file.

And it goes on for about 3pp.
Here's the third in entirety:

--- /etc/shorewall/interfaces 2005-06-28 12:12:23.000000000 -0400
+++ /etc/shorewall/interfaces.rpmnew 2005-07-20 14:53:16.000000000 -0400
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
#
# BROADCAST The broadcast address for the subnetwork to which the
# interface belongs. For P-T-P interfaces, this
-# column is left black.If the interface has multiple
+# column is left blank.If the interface has multiple
# addresses on multiple subnets then list the broadcast
# addresses as a comma-separated list.
#
@@ -191,6 +191,4 @@
##############################################################################
#ZONE INTERFACE BROADCAST OPTIONS
#
-net ppp+ detect
-loc eth0 detect
#LAST LINE -- ADD YOUR ENTRIES BEFORE THIS ONE -- DO NOT REMOVE

To me, this might as well be written in Ancient Sumarian for all that I understand.


Any info greatly appreciated. And greatly relieved that I wasn't transgressing. I've offended 7 people this morning already. Sigh.

N

This looks like the same thing I got when I was updating. I'm not certain but I'm pretty sure it's asking whether or not to replace some configuration files for shorewall, which is the built firewall like you thought. I was a bit braver and told it to use the new ones. This led me to needing to change the settings back so it would let me connect anything (Configure you Computer ->Security ->Setup Personal Firewall). I don't know if it had any other affects, but I haven't noticed anything and based on what you copied at least I don't think it actually does so you'd probably be ok deleting the new one.