= Subset Repositories (Fedora 10) =

With the move to FedoraProject:PackageKit in Fedora 9, the facility that Fedora 8 had to install packages
directly from install media left in your machine (e.g. DVD in a DVD drive) or inserted on demand
is no longer available (it is a work-in-progress I think).

Follow the instructions here for creating and using
a base repository based on an ISO image of the DVD media stored on your hard disk.

== Creating the Base Repository ==

The base distribution repository is created in the same way as it's always been done
on the earlier distribution releases. The files can be located anywhere but for
the purposes of this article, the directory `/srv/nb/distros/fc10` is used as a base.

To support both 32-bit and 64-bit machines on the network, the ISO images for both the 32-bit and 64-bit
releases are needed. If you only need one architecture, skip the parts pertaining to the other architecture
(similarly if you're using ''ppc'', substitute `ppc` for `i386` or `x86_64` as appropriate).

The ISO images should be placed the repository area on the server that you are using, e.g.:
{{{
# mkdir -p /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/i386/iso/
# cp Fedora-10-i386-DVD.iso /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/i386/iso/

# mkdir -p /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/x86_64/iso/
# cp Fedora-10-x86_64-DVD.iso /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/x86_64/iso/
}}}

Create mount points so that the ISO images can be loopback-mounted:
{{{
# mkdir /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/i386/dvd/
# chcon -t mnt_t /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/i386/dvd

# mkdir /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/x86_64/dvd/
# chcon -t mnt_t /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/x86_64/dvd
}}}

Edit `/etc/fstab` and add entries for the DVD images to get them mounted at boot time:
{{{
/srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/i386/iso/Fedora-10-i386-DVD.iso /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/i386/dvd iso9660 _netdev,ro,loop,fscontext=system_u:object_r:public_content_t:s0 0 0
/srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/x86_64/iso/Fedora-10-x86_64-DVD.iso /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/x86_64/dvd iso9660 _netdev,ro,loop,fscontext=system_u:object_r:public_content_t:s0 0 0
}}}
<!> Note that these are just single long lines for each ISO image

It should now be possible to mount the ISO image(s) by issuing the command:
{{{
# service netfs start
}}}
It may seem strange to treat local loopback mounts as "network filesystems" but
this is the point during the boot process where loopback mounts get done.
Using `service netfs start` rather than plain `mount -a` checks that there are
no SELinux issues (the former runs confined by SELinux, the latter does not).
The long-winded mount options in the `fstab` entries prevent SELinux objecting
if you serve out the repository using `ftp`, `httpd`, `rsync` etc.

If you are going to loopback-mount a large number of ISO images
(perhaps earlier releases too), you may need to increase the number of
loopback devices available in the kernel. The Fedora 10 kernel has the loopback
module built-in rather than as a module, so append to the end of each `kernel` line in `/etc/grub.conf`:
{{{
max_loop=64
}}}
That will provide support for up to 64 loop devices (the default is 8 I believe).
So a typical `grub.conf` entry would look like this:
{{{
title Fedora (2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.x86_64)
	root (hd0,1)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.x86_64 ro root=/dev/VgOS/lvroot max_loop=64
	initrd /initrd-2.6.27.12-170.2.5.fc10.x86_64.img
}}}
This change will, of course, not have any effect until the next reboot.

== Using the Base Repository ==

Using the base repository is very straightforward.

Using your favourite editor, create a file `/etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-local.repo`:
{{{
[fedora-local]
name=Fedora $releasever - $basearch (local)
baseurl=file:///srv/nb/distros/fc$releasever/os/$basearch/dvd
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
metadata_expire=-1
cost=500
}}}

You should now be able to test your setup by installing some package.
Packages on the media will be shown as coming from `fedora-local` and
other packages will be shown as coming from `fedora`.

== Creating the Updates Repository ==

The object here is to create an updates repository that contains only updates
for the packages available on the original media. This will reduce the bandwidth
and disk space needed to maintain the mirror.

The tool to be used is `reposync`, which is part of the `yum-utils` package.

The first step is to create lists of the packages on the media (and hence those we want to mirror updates for):
{{{
# cd /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/i386
# ls dvd/Packages |
        awk '{ pkgname = $1; sub("-[^-]*-[^-]*$", "", pkgname); print "\t" pkgname }' |
        uniq > fedora-10-i386-dvd-pkgs.conf
# cd /srv/nb/distros/fc10/os/x86_64
# ls dvd/Packages |
        awk '{ pkgname = $1; sub("-[^-]*-[^-]*$", "", pkgname); print "\t" pkgname }' |
        uniq > fedora-10-x86_64-dvd-pkgs.conf
}}}
This process creates a sorted list of the packages on each DVD ISO
(the lists are slightly different for each architecture), one per line,
indented with a tab character at the start of each line. The tab character
(or at least some form of leading space) is important for later use.

Now create a mirror configuration file, `/etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates-mirror.repo`:
{{{
[fedora-10-updates-subset-i386]
name=Fedora 10 - i386 - Updates Subset
#baseurl=http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/updates/10/i386/
mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=updates-released-f10&arch=i386
#baseurl=http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/updates/10/i386/
#	http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/updates/10/i386/
#	http://mirrors.eu.kernel.org/fedora/updates/10/i386/
#	http://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/MIRRORS/fedora.redhat.com/linux/updates/10/i386/
#	ftp://ftp.tudelft.nl/pub/Linux/download.fedora.redhat.com/linux/updates/10/i386/
includepkgs=
include=file:///srv/nb/distros/fc10/fedora-10-i386-dvd-pkgs.conf
	kernel-firmware
enabled=0
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-10-primary
failovermethod=priority

[fedora-10-updates-subset-x86_64]
name=Fedora 10 - x86_64 - Updates Subset
#baseurl=http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/updates/10/x86_64/
mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=updates-released-f10&arch=x86_64
#baseurl=http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/updates/10/x86_64/
#	http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/updates/10/x86_64/
#	http://mirrors.eu.kernel.org/fedora/updates/10/x86_64/
#	http://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/MIRRORS/fedora.redhat.com/linux/updates/10/x86_64/
#	ftp://ftp.tudelft.nl/pub/Linux/download.fedora.redhat.com/linux/updates/10/x86_64/
includepkgs=
include=file:///srv/nb/distros/fc10/fedora-10-x86_64-dvd-pkgs.conf
	kernel-firmware
enabled=0
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///srv/nb/distros/fc10/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-10-primary
failovermethod=priority
}}}
<!> It's a good idea to replace the `mirrorlist` entries with `baseurl` entries pointing to one or more
fast, nearby mirrors as shown in the commented-out `baseurl` entries above; 
not all mirrors are as up to date as each other, so with the `mirrorlist` you might find that one day's
`reposync` run removes the updates downloaded in the previous day's run.

{i} If you want to include additional packages in your local updates repository for packages that
were not included on the release media, you can add them (indented by a tab) one per line after the `include=`
lines in the repository configuration, as I have shown in the examples above for `kernel-firmware`.

Then create a script `updates-sync`, and put it somewhere in your `PATH`, such as `/usr/local/bin`:
{{{#!format plain
#!/bin/bash

echo "Updating mirror of fedora-10-updates-subset-x86_64"
reposync -n -g -d -a x86_64 -r fedora-10-updates-subset-x86_64 -p /srv/nb/distros/fc10 |
	grep -Ev "Skipping existing|%"
createrepo -q -d -C /srv/nb/distros/fc10/fedora-10-updates-subset-x86_64
echo ""

commonpkgs=$(echo /srv/nb/distros/fc10/fedora-10-updates-subset-x86_64/*.{i386,noarch}.rpm)
if [ "$commonpkgs" != "/srv/nb/distros/fc10/fedora-10-updates-subset-x86_64/*.{i386,noarch}.rpm" ]; then
	ln -f $commonpkgs /srv/nb/distros/fc10/fedora-10-updates-subset-i386/
fi

echo "Updating mirror of fedora-10-updates-subset-i386"
reposync -n -g -d -r fedora-10-updates-subset-i386 -p /srv/nb/distros/fc10 |
	grep -Ev "Skipping existing|%"
createrepo -q -d -C /srv/nb/distros/fc10/fedora-10-updates-subset-i386
echo ""
}}}
Skip the parts of the script for any architecture you're not interested in.
The section in the middle hardlinking files between the x86_64 and i386 repos is only
useful if you are mirroring both x86_64 and i386 updates.

The `grep` command here reduces the volume of output from `reposync` whilst
leaving the interesting output alone (unlike the `-q` option of `reposync`).
Don't forget to make the script executable:
{{{
# chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/updates-sync
}}}

To populate the repository (download the update packages), just run `/usr/local/bin/updates-sync`.
This will create repositories in directories
`/srv/nb/distros/fc10/fedora-10-updates-subset-i386` and
`/srv/nb/distros/fc10/fedora-10-updates-subset-x86_64` for `i386` and `x86_64` respectively.

== Using the Updates Repository ==

Create a new repository configuration file `/etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-local-updates.repo` as follows:
{{{
[updates-local]
name=Fedora $releasever - $basearch - Updates (local)
failovermethod=priority
baseurl=file:///srv/nb/distros/fc$releasever/fedora-$releasever-updates-subset-$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
metadata_expire=120
cost=500
}}}
{i} A low value for `metadata_expire` is used so that users of your local updates repo see the updates there very soon after you've sync'ed your mirror, and get fresh updates from there instead of downloading them themselves from the main updates repo over the Internet.

You should now be able to test your setup by running `yum update`.
Packages in the local repository will be shown as coming from `updates-local` and
other packages will be shown as coming from `updates`.

== No/Slow Internet Connection? ==

Edit the configuration files:
 * `/etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo`
 * `/etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates.repo`

Change the line:
{{{
enabled=1
}}}
to:
{{{
enabled=0
}}}
for the network repositories and leave just the local repositories enabled by default.
You should then be able to use the package management tools whilst offline, though you may find that
things you'd like to install appear not to be available.

To enable the Internet repositories for a single `yum` run whilst you're online, use:
{{{
# yum --enablerepo=fedora --enablerepo=updates update
}}}
or
{{{
# yum --enablerepo=fedora --enablerepo=updates install somepackage
}}}
etc.

----
CategoryTip