Updates for LM 9.2b2 fails
 

I have tried to do an update to LM 9.2b2 using
urpmi.addmedia main ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/Mandrake-devel/cooker/i586/Mandrake/RPMS /base/hdlist.cz

and it always fails with unable to update medium "main"

Help! I can't use LM update pgm as I can't log in as root.
Yes I did open a window and log on as su to run the command.

This is a beta version of Mandrake. There are no updates - Mandrake only provide updates for full versions.

There is no need to login as root to run the mandrake update program. Just start it as a normal user and you'll be asked for the root password. That's all. There is actually never a reason to start the graphical desktop as root.

also
urpmi.addmedia main ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/Mandrak.../Mandrake/RPMS /base/hdlist.cz
is not the right syntax. It should be something like
urpmi.addmedia main ftp://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/Mandrak.../Mandrake/RPMS with ../base/hdlist.cz
Notice the 'with' and that the path to the hdlist.cz is the relative path from where the rpms are (you'll have to check where the hdlist.cz is).