Fedora Linux

9.4.1.2. Installing Rawhide directly

Rawhide can also be directly installed using the Fedora network installation method.

Using a browser, select a nearby Fedora mirror server from the list at http://fedora.redhat.com/Download/mirrors.html and verify that it contains the os/development directory for your architecture (not all mirrors carry Rawhide) and that the development tree is reasonably up-to-date (i.e., that some of the files in the os/Fedora/RPMS directory are timestamped within the last 48 hours).

From the images directory on the mirror, download the boot.iso file and burn it to a CD or DVD, or download the diskboot.img file and copy it to a USB flash drive (see Lab 10.3, 'Preparing Alternate Installation Media ').

Boot the target system from this disc or USB flash drive and perform a normal HTTP or FTP installation from the mirror that you selected (see Chapter 1).

When installed in this way, the development repository is automatically enabled. Use yum to update the system periodicallyusually on a daily basis:

# yum update

It's not uncommon to see the yum update fail due to dependency issues. Usually the issues will be solved by the next Rawhide update, and the yum command will succeed the next day. It's recommended that you run yum manually rather than using the yum daily update service so that you can see the error messages explaining any conflicts.

It's a good idea to periodically reinstall Rawhide from scratch to eliminate the 'cruft' that accumulates with frequent unclean updates.

9.4.1.3. Creating a local Rawhide mirror

If you're using Rawhide heavilytesting it on several systems, for example and you have a broadband Internet connection, it's worthwhile maintaining your own local development mirror.

The rsync tool provides a convenient method of mirroring the development repository. To use it, select an rsync URI from the mirror list at http://fedora.redhat.com/Download/mirrors.html . Finding the correct directory within the rsync server may take a bit of experimentation because various mirror sites use different directory layouts. Use the rsync command to explore content on the mirror server:

$ rsync -v rsync://ftp.muug.mb.ca/
Welcome to MUUG Online Network Access, courtesy of the
Manitoba Unix User Group.
For any questions, problems, or concerns about this site,
please send e-mail to: <[email protected]>.
Look under the /pub directory and subdirectories for files to download.
We are now also maintaining a mirror of selected sites (or a subset
thereof), in the /mirror directory. Look at the README file there
for details on what is being mirrored.
ftp MUUG Online FTP area (more Gigs than you want to download!)
pub MUUG Online pub area (more Gigs than you want to download!)
mirror Mirror of various sites (more Gigs than you want to download!)
redhat ftp.redhat.com mirror (more Gigs than you want to download!)
redhat-contrib ftp.redhat.com mirror, contrib directory
redhat-updates updates.redhat.com mirror
fedora fedora.redhat.com mirror, top-level directory
fedora-linux-core fedora.redhat.com mirror, core directory
fedora-linux-core-updates fedora.redhat.com mirror, updates directory
fedora-linux-core-development fedora.redhat.com mirror, development directory
fedora-linux-core-test fedora.redhat.com mirror, (beta) test directory
fedora-linux-extras fedora.redhat.com mirror, extras directory

In this case, the introductory message indicates that fedora-linux-core- development contains the development tree. Use rsync again to view the contents of that directory:

$ rsync -v rsync://ftp.muug.mb.ca/fedora-linux-core-development/
Welcome to MUUG Online Network Access, courtesy of the
Manitoba Unix User Group.
...(Lines snipped)...
drwxrwsr-x 4096 2006/07/13 18:43:37 .
-rw-r--r-- 3101 2003/11/04 12:23:24 README
drwxr-xr-x 4096 2006/07/13 15:21:37 i386
drwxrwsr-x 4096 2006/07/13 15:21:33 source
sent 117 bytes received 544 bytes 440.67 bytes/sec
total size is 3101 speedup is 4.69

Don't omit the final / on the rsync URI. 

The i386 directory is the one we're interested in (it looks like you'd have to use a different mirror for other architectures):

$ rsync -v rsync://ftp.muug.mb.ca/fedora-linux-core-development/i386/
Welcome to MUUG Online Network Access, courtesy of the
Manitoba Unix User Group.
...(Lines snipped)...
drwxr-xr-x 4096 2006/07/13 15:21:37 .
drwxr-xr-x 81920 2006/07/13 15:37:52 debug
drwxrwsr-x 4096 2006/07/12 08:09:49 iso
drwxrwsr-x 4096 2006/07/13 15:49:37 os
sent 123 bytes received 530 bytes 145.11 bytes/sec
total size is 0 speedup is 0.00