How Do I Update Packages On A NST System?

From the NST WUI

From the menu bar, select: "System|Downloads & Updates|NST Package Update Management".
Press the "Update NST System" button.

From the Command Line

[root@sprint ~]# yum update

Or, if there are missing dependencies:

[root@sprint ~]# yum --skip-broken update

From the Fluxbox Desktop

Need menu sequence for yumex and maybe others.

From the GNOME Desktop

Need menu sequence for yumex and maybe others.

What Should I Do After Updating A NST System?

Depending upon what packages are updated on the system, you may need to run the command:

[root@sprint ~]# nstliveinst -m post-update

There is a alias provided which run the above command and can be invoked via:

[root@sprint ~]# nstpostupdate

NOTE: It is a good idea to stop network monitoring services (ntop, snort, etc) before invoking the above command.

This command will do the following:

Make you reset the encrypted system passwords (it runs the nstpasswd script). This is necessary if a package update from Fedora resets or clears a system password. This will replace existing ssh keys and reset passwords for many different applications (if you had individually set passwords you will need to do so again).

Rebuild the Fluxbox and NST WUI menus in case applications were added or removed from the system.

Run the scripts found under the /etc/nst/tweaks directory to apply some post installation adjustments to some Fedora packages (for example, the yumex package needs to be tweaked in order to allow the root user the ability to start the application).

What Are My Options For Resolving Missing Dependency Errors?

The Fedora repositories had proved to be pretty reliable for us for about 6 months during development. However, (shortly after the NST v2.11.0 release), Fedora introduced a repository error in which the Fedora Updates repository was in a bad state (only a subset of the necessary files were moved from the Testing area to the Updates area).

This resulted in a Missing Dependency error when updating a system:

[root@sprint ~]# yum update
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit

... omitted yum output ...

Error: Missing Dependency: rubygem(activesupport) = 2.3.2 is needed by package rubygem-rails-2.3.2-3.fc11.noarch (installed)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: package-cleanup --problems
                        package-cleanup --dupes
                        rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
[root@sprint ~]#

Using --skip-broken

The easiest way to work around this problem is to include the --skip-broken option.

yum --skip-broken update

Enabling the "Fedora Testing" Repository

In some cases (like the rubygem missing dependency issue), the problem is due to the fact that only a subset of the necessary files were moved from the Fedora Testing repository into the Fedora Updates area. If you know this is the case, you can enable the Fedora Testing area when updating these packages.

For example, to work around the rubygem issue on 2009-10-01, the following command can be run:

yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update rubygem*

***WARNING*** Make sure you explicitly list the packages you want to update, otherwise MANY UNWANTED UPDATES MIGHT OCCUR!

How do I report repository errors?

How do I report a Fedora repository error?

Not sure yet - but will be tracking this down.

How do I report a NST repository error?

The easiest way is to post a message to the NST Forum at SourceForge.

What Package Issues Might I See After Updating?

Depending upon what packages are updated on your system, you may see some issues after performing a system update. Many of this issues can be accounted for by applying the necessary NST tweaks by invoking the nstpostupdate command after performing your yum update.

The following describes some of the packages which require a NST tweak.

Why do I see JavaScript errors when using the NST WUI?

When the nstwui package is updated (or whenever the nstmenu -m update command is run), you may see one or more of the following issues:

JavaScript errors may appear in your browser when using the NST WUI.

The menu bar at the top of the NST WUI may fail to render.

This condition may occur frequently as the nstwui package is frequently updated.

This condition occurs because the files cached by your browser are out of sync with the newly updated files on the NST system.

To recover from this issue, you can try a "forced reload" of the page (hold down the Shift key and press the Reload icon in Firefox - use the Control key in Internet Explorer).

If that doesn't work, try clearing your browser's cache.

Why can't I run yumex as root?

The default installation of Fedora's yumex package does not allow one to start yumex as the root user.

There is a NST tweak which patches the yumex package to adjust for this. This will be applied automatically for you if you run the nstpostupdate command. However, if you don't want to reset your system passwords and apply this tweak individually, you may do so by running the following command:

[root@sprint ~]# /etc/nst/tweaks/10nst-config-yumex.tweak
[root@sprint ~]#

Updating A NST System

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