[CentOS] Re: yum has no updates?

Fri Jan 12 19:10:35 UTC 2007
R P Herrold <herrold at owlriver.com>

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007, Akemi Yagi wrote:

> I run CentOS4.4 386 on a server.  The last update was 12/23/2006 like the
> original poster.  The only package that came out after that date was
> openoffice as of 1/11/2007.  There are a couple of new packages that were
> out yesterday, but things like firefox and thunderbird have not been
> updated since 12/23/2006.

Two approaches surface -- in looking at the 'server' related 
updates since late December, I really do not see any, nor, 
indeed, know of any from Centos' participation in the public 
and certain private vulnerability clearinghoues.  No unpatched 
public vulnerabilities ** in a server context** have been 
patched in the last couple weeks.

I monitor the security reporting email address for the project 
as well, along with some other project members, and know of no 
public live *server* issues at the moment. [ security at centos.org ]

Alternatively, one can install something just patched, [say: 
xorg-x11-libs  as it reasonably light as to packages it may 
pull in] and see if one gets the updated version:

[herrold at dhcp-69 ~]$ rpm -qi xorg-x11-libs
Name        : xorg-x11-libs                Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version     : 6.8.2                             Vendor: CentOS
Release     : 1.EL.13.37.5                  Build Date: Thu 11 Jan 2007 11:58:49 PM EST
Install Date: Fri 12 Jan 2007 10:24:32 AM EST      Build Host: builder6.centos.org
Group       : System Environment/Libraries   Source RPM: xorg-x11-6.8.2-1.EL.13.37.5.src.rpm
Size        : 6901938                          License: MIT/X11, and others
Signature   : DSA/SHA1, Fri 12 Jan 2007 12:49:36 AM EST, Key ID a53d0bab443e1821
URL         : http://xorg.freedesktop.org
Summary     : Shared libraries needed by the X Window System
Description :
This package contains the shared libraries required for running X
applications.

If this is not observed, I would really have to suspect that 
you have a non-standard configuration, possibly provided by 
the bandwidth and hosting vendor you are using, which is 
pointing at non-stock update archives.  This is commonly seen 
with some colo providers and their so-called 'CentOS' 
installations

To diagnose this, please run the following:

[herrold at dhcp-69 yum.repos.d]$ rpm -qf  \
 	/etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo && md5sum \
 	/etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo && rpm -V centos-release
centos-release-4-4.2
dcfda3e584bd570a7b820817e355d46d   /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
[herrold at dhcp-69 yum.repos.d]$

If your values do not match, there is a problem which your 
provider needs to address.

- Russ Herrold
 	herrold at centos.org
 	as well as herrold at owlriver.com