Fedora Linux

$basearch/
mirrorlist=http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors/updates-released-fc$releasever
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora

After the section identifier [updates-released] , there are several name/value pairs, each on a separate line, joined with equal signs:

name

The repository name as it will be shown to the user. The variables $releasevar and $basearch are replaced with the distribution release ( 6 ) and the system architecture ( i386 , x86_64 , or ppc ).

baseurl

The master URL for the repository.

mirrorlist

The URL of a text file listing all of the mirrors (alternate servers that are loaded from the master server) for the repository. It is better to use a mirrorlist than a baseurl entry to avoid overloading the master server and to provide multiple servers for redundancy.

enabled

1 to enable this repository, or 0 to ignore this repository.

gpgcheck

1 to enable GPG verification of the origin of the RPM packages served by the repository, or 0 to disable GPG verification. GPG verification tests the package integrity and ensures that the package has not been tampered with (which helps to guard against Trojans and viruses).

gpgkey

URL of the GPG public key for GPG package verification. This is almost always a file:/// URL (the key is on the local system).

There are a number of repositories available in addition to the ones preconfigured in Fedora. The maintainer of the Unofficial Fedora FAQ (http://www.fedorafaq.org/) also maintains a list of available repositories. You can install configuration files for these repositories with this command:

# rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/yum

Rerunning this command periodically will update the repository list.

Although this command installs the repository files, most of them are disabled by default. This is because some repositories are not compatible.

The two main add-on repositories groups used in conjunction with the base, updates, and extra repositories are the Livna ( http://rpm.livna.org ) repository, and the RPMforge repositories, a group of repositories that have agreed to work together for compatibility ( http://rpmforge.net ). There have been compatibility issues between these two, so repositories from only one of them should be enabled.

The Livna repository is located outside of the United States and distributes packages that have license or patent issues that make them ineligible for inclusion in the Fedora or Fedora Extras repositories. This may include usage restrictions (such as personal use only) or U.S. patent encumbrances. Check the licenses carefully to ensure that you can legally use the software in your circumstances in your jurisdiction. 

The FedoraFaq repository configuration files have livna enabled and the other repos disabled by default.

You can manually edit the files in /etc/yum.repos.d/ and change the lines that read:

enabled=0

to read:

enabled=1

5.3.2. How Does It Work?

RPM packages contain dependency information that indicates which capabilities are needed by the package and which capabilities are provided by the package. What they don't contain is information about which other packages provide or require those capabilities. Packages can't contain that information because the other packagesthe ones that provide and require capabilitieschange over time.

yum contains the logic to search repositories based on these capabilities. It can therefore resolve dependencies automatically.

There are three levels of information managed by yum : a list of packages available from the repositories, including capabilities provided by those packages; the headers for packages, which contain the metadata for those packages, including the capabilities required by those packages; and the packages themselves, which include both the metadata and the file archive. All of this information is stored in /var/cache/yum .

The first level of information, the list of available files, is updated automatically whenever yum (or one of the graphical tools) is started. The second level, headers, is retrieved when yum needs to determine dependencies. The actual packages are retrieved only after the decision to install or update the software has been confirmed.

The update icon is managed by the puplet monitor, which receives update information from the yum-updatesd services over the desktop communication bus (dbus).

5.3.3. What About...

5.3.3.1. ...installing proprietary video drivers?

The Livna repository provides RPM-packaged versions of the ATI and NVIDIA drivers. For the ATI drivers, install kmod-fglrx (or kmod-fglrx-smp for a multiprocessor/multicore kernel); for the NVIDIA drivers, install kmod-nvidia (or kmod-nvidia-smp ).

For example, to install the NVIDIA drivers on a single-core, single-processor system: