I tried to make sure this isnt a repeated post by doing a search, however was unable to find a post relating to this so here I go:

I am trying to run the up2date command in command line but get the error:

RPM Error:
Could not determine what version of RHL you are running.
If you get this error, try running

rpm --rebuilddb


So I run the command 'rpm --rebuilddb' command and then followed by 'up2date' but no luck. Please can you help me with this as I need to make some important updates to the server.

Kind regards

Don't use up2date. I'm not kidding.

I take it this is fedora? (Please place your distro in your profile. See "My LQ > Edit Profile" on the right.) Note: we cannot tell which version of RHL you are running either.

You should be using yum for updates. See www.fedorafaq.org

Hi Simon, Sorry I forgot to mention that its redhat linux es- this is my work environment although at home i use fedora.
regards

Red Hat Linux Edge Server? Which one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux
Would this be RHEL 2.1ES (Panama) released in May 2003. It is based on RHL7.2 ... i.e. quite old. Your work should consider upgrading to RHEL4 ... they seem to have missed two opportunities for a free upgrade

I don't know how it is with RHEL, but with RHL and Fedora, only the latest two releases are supported in up2date.

However, your error would appear to be a little different. I'd complain to RedHat - especially if the company is still paying for support. Alternatively, you could try installing an up to date up2date from rpm, downloaded from rhn.

Then there is yum for rhel mentioned here ... don't know how good it is.
http://sial.org/howto/yum/

Sorry, iam not making myself clear: this problem only existed after i recently did an update using the up2date command. So basically it use to work but since having updated its giving me the above error. Ther version is RHEL 4(ENTERPRISE LINUX AS) and now after the updated kernel its now on version 2.6.9.11. I hope this helps......sorry for not giving the info earlier

... that's quite a big difference there!

However, I did get that up2date was working until after the last update. When this happened to me, it was because RHL9 support was dropped. This should not be the case with RHEL4 AS (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Advanced Server edition), though it could be expected to be an issue with RHL ES (Red Hat Linux Edge Server edition).

In the last update, was up2date itself updated? (check up2date version with rpm -q up2date) If not then it should be. It may even be that a reinstall of up2date will fix the problem.

Also, can you show me the entire up2date command you tried to run ... the error you get seems to be from rpm (i.e. after the packages have been downloaded but before they are installed???)

Thanks for the response simon..
in the last update the up2date command did update itself as I was told it needed updating. I think you could be very right that the updates had been downloaded but not installed(i had someone else messign about with this server). The command I have been using is simply 'up2date' on the command prompt.
If for argument sake updates have been downloaded but not installed, how can I tackle this in that case?

regards

If someone else has been messing about - hit their head against the wall until they tell you what they did... you may also get clues in /var/log/up2date

To check, I guess you'd need to find where downloaded rpm's are stored, cd to that directory, and do Or you can use ... see the up2date man page for more details.

In general, it is good practise when updating up2date to update only up2date and then update everything else. Better yet, if you can possibly use yum, do so.

If someone else has been messing about - hit their head against the wall until they tell you what they did... you may also get clues in /var/log/up2date


I am very close to doing that....the only problem is ppl are so thick up there that they may end up breaking the wall :-/

ta once again for the advice....gonna give it a go...and take things from there...

regards

Just a tip while we wait for the results to come in: If you want to quote someone in the "quick reply" thing, you noticed you can copy and paste OK - did you know you can stick it into a quote box too? Just stick it in the vb code ... for a quote, the code is "quote" ... and it's used like this:

[vbcode]text string code to be applied to[/vbcode]
... Ah well, there are other parts of the anatomy which they may value more...

I heard RMS, at a UN conference, on learning that he had limited dimplomatic immunity as a UN delegate, lamented that he had missed several chances to shoot proprietary-advocate rivals for the betterment of humanity

Can You tell me how to do a complete reinstall of up2date? Mine is hosed and I'm not quite sure how to fix it.

Ah - there's yum install up2date

You'll need to get the up2date rpms from redhat, and install them via the rpm command.

I'm guessing that up2date -i did the trick for fedorauser as we havn't seen hide nor hair since... (or, he's in prison for taking my other advise?)

Hi Simon,
I am still here dude...
ur right with the first guess, i had success with the first request and was progressing onto other things )
REGARDS

Cool: nice to know.

When a suggestion works, it is best to let us know - closes off the thread nicely, and reassures folk following you that this thread, in fact, contains a solution.

Happy hacking.