$yum list yum
yum.noarch 3.2.22-0 installed
$yum repolist all
repo id repo name status
dag Dag RPM Repository for RHEL enabled
epel Extra Packages for EL 5 -x86_64 enabled
epel-testing Extra Packager for EL 5 - Testing - x86_64 disabled
rhel-debuginfo RHEL 5Client - x86_64 - Debug enabled
rpmforge RHE 5Client - RPMforge.net - dag enabled

BUT: the default rhn channels in the yum.conf file have been erased
in the forced yum update! I cannot find them anymore even though
they must be similar to the one in rhel-debuginfo. Can anyone help, please? Also, in the Gnome Top Panel System-Tools pull-down menu, the
Graphic Software updater has gone. However, the package viewer is still
there.

$cat /etc/issue
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client release 5.3 (Tikanga)
Kernel \r on an \m

$cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.18-128.1.6.el5 (mockbuild@ls20-bc2-14.build.redhat.com) (gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-44)) #1 SMP Tue Mar 24 12:05:57 EDT 2009

P.S. Originally, I believe it was yum-3.2.21-0 installed by default.
P.P.S. I am assuming they should be in yum.conf because those in yum/repos.d are still there. However, in yum.conf is empty where they should be and it has been rewritten in the installation:
§more yum.conf
[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
keepcache=1
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1


# PUT YOUR REPOS HERE OR IN separate files named file.repo
# in /etc/yum/repos.d

$

Contact your RHEL rep, that is what you are paying for. He should be able to get you back up in a few minutes.

curiocurio,

The comment in the file you posted suggests that they should either be in yum.conf or in yum/repos.d, not both. Are you sure that there is something missing? I have access to a RHEL-5.3 machine registered with RHN and it doesn't show any repositories in yum.conf.

Check for a file named yum.conf.rpmsave; if yum has updated the configuration file through an update then it should have saved a copy of the backup.

If you're not pulling updates from the Red Hat Network then you might also try running /usr/sbin/rhn_register again.

The menu item might be hidden; right-click on the top level menu to reconfigure it. Otherwise the package for it could be uninstalled (I don't know which package off-hand but you should be able to find it in the package viewer).

Hope that helps,

— Robert J Lee.

Thank you all three for your pointers. Looking in the general references
didn't help me much; also, I spent two hours on the rhn pages trying to
file a webticket and then a bugzilla bug, but in vain, I guess I'm too
computer-illiterate. The only time I called a customer rep, they told
me that my system was preinstalled by the computer vendor and I should
ask them....

To the 3rd and very kind replier: I forced the installation from a tar.gz
which I had downloaded from the duke yum repository. I did it several times untill it succeeded - I had first to uninstall the old yum with rpm -ef.... Therefore, there was no yum.conf.rpmsave.... I have one now
after deinstalling the new yum and downloading the old one again from rhn. The new rhn-channels that I additionally selected are incidentally not in the yum.conf.rpmsave but they seem to be in etc/yum/pluginconf.d

Hope that helps others that are as careless as I to cut off the branch they're sitting on.....
Best regards, Mark
P.S. the original yum from RHEL5.3 is apparently 3.2.19-18.el5