Problems with up2date...
 

Okay, I try to run the up2date program, and I get this error when I attempt to download the files:

There was a fatal error communicating with the server. The message was:

An HTTP error occurred:
URL: *download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/4/i386/os//alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2.i386.rpm
Status Code: 404
Error Message: Not Found

I can see that there is a double //, and I think it might be the long link in the first place, but i am actually not sure. also, this is with the updates-released channel selected only so I know that is where the problem lies. Also, it is not just the package, it gives that error on the 1st checked package, in this case it is alsa-lib-1.0.9rc4-2.i386.rpm, if this package was unchecked, it would go to the next one. if someone could help me out, I would really appreciate it. (note: I put a * in place of h t t p : / / due to the fact that I have no posted at least 5 times to abide by forum policy)

Which fedora are you using?

up2date is nasty and slow - use yum instead.
see the faq for your version of fedora at www.fedorafaq.org (this is FC4 - links to the others are at the top of the page. Also has a better up2date setup listed if you absolutely must.)

actually, i did end up using yum, i have decided i don't care about up to date. however, i have a new problem. i am trying to get apt-get up and going, but it is not pre-configured and i was wondering how to configure it. just as a reference, this is what i get when i type apt-get upate:

[root@localhost daniel]# apt-get update
Fetching list of repositories/mirrors...
E: Failed to fetch mirror list file:

(there is nothing after the colon for whatever reason)

Apt is basically deprecated in Fedora Core; try to use Yum instead. Also, which repository did you get Apt from?

I got apt from apt.freshrpms

apt-get is no good on fedora use yum it works the best and very few issues with it.

check out yumex, the gui for yum and you'll never want apt-get anymore!

i agree with linmix. to get yumex in terminal type" yum install yumex"

Your problem:Is due to not having the correct repositories set up for fedora. Now: remember way back when you first posted I gave you a url to a FAQ? Well, this also tells you how to set up apt for fedora. Is this what you did?

However, as the others have indicated, there is not a lot of point using apt-get with fedora. All the same functionality comes with yum. If you want "Synaptic" type of interface, the YUM Extender (yumex) will do this.

Having used both myself, apt is possibly a bit better - but only for debian-based distros.

BTW: For the future - please edit your profile to include your location and your distro. Thanx.

You might also want to try Smart Package Manager available here . You should install all three RPM's.

monkiidansu: As Simon Bridge pointed out, you need to add an apt-style FC4 repository to /etc/apt/sources.list to get apt-get to work.

One apt-style repository for FC4 is available at freshrpms (see: http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/4/i386/ for i386).

Try adding the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list and retest “apt-get update”:

rpm http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/ 4/i386 os updates extras freshrpms

The major problem with using apt in FC4 is the general lack of FC4 repositories in apt format. Locally, I maintain both yum and apt FC3/4 repositories and prefer using apt-get over yum for most things.

And contrary to what you read in this and other threads, apt-get works fine in FC4, as long as you have an apt-style repository available. In the days of FC3, apt-get just blew yum out of the water, but the difference is not so great these days.

For FC4, apt-get installs updates significantly faster than yum, but there are packages that you will need to use yum to update. The speed difference is not a big deal for day-to-day maintenance, but when you do a fresh “install everything” of FC4 from a local repository and need to update over 500 packages, the speed difference is very significant and very noticeable.

As a side point, apt and synaptic are still available from FC4 extras (see apt-0.5.15cnc7-6.fc4.i386.rpm and synaptic-0.57.2-1.fc4.i386.rpm at http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...extras/4/i386/ for i386).

And now for something almost everyone will agree on: up2date sucks.

Well as I said - apt is slightly better than yum. The main difference, as noted, is speed ... it is still a bit of a pain waiting for yum to get all the repo info over a 56k connection. In broadband it probably dosn't matter so much.

I also noticed that apt gives more info about the packages by default ... but since I got yumex - this is not so different and the yumex vs synaptic gap is quite narrow.

Considering how far behind yum started, I'd expect significant improvements over the next year.

It would be interesting to look at this from the other side though - the developer/maintainer end. Like: which kind of repo is better for developers in terms of maintenance and keeping up to date?

WhatsHisName maintains both yum and apt repos - which is the better for the maintainer, and why?

As for up2date - I understand it is better for enterprise users.
RH servers are s l o w . . . amazing really. I suspect they don't really want the rest of the community using them. May even be planning to phase up2date out in future.

Hence, it's suckability will only increase.

Regarding maintaining local apt repos, since most primary FC4 repos are yum-style, having an apt-style repo requires a few more (automated/cron) steps and a little more disk space.

The way it’s set up here, the yum repos are mirrored each night using rsync and the next morning, the rpms are linked to the corresponding apt-style directories and genbasedir is run to create the apt base files.

You could do it the other way and mirror apt-style FC4 repos, but the availability of apt-style FC4 repos is somewhat limited. For completeness, after mirroring apt-style repos, you would link the rpms to the corresponding yum-style directories and then use createrepo to create the yum repodata files.

The third variation is that you could mirror the rpms from a yum-style repository using rsync (set to exclude subdirectories) directly to local apt-style directories and then run genbasedir, but it’s useful to have the yum-style repos available locally.

Maintaining local yum and/or apt repos is just a matter of linking together a few straightforward steps and serving it up locally. In other words, it’s very easy to have both repo styles available locally.