Updating openSUSE in the University of Cambridge

openSUSE 11.0 and 11.1

openSUSE 11.0 and 11.1 continue with the zypper update mechanism as introduced in openSUSE 10.3 thus the below instructions for 10.3 should work for 11.0 and 11.1 as well by simply changing 10.3 to 11.0 or 11.1 in all URLs/paths.

openSUSE 10.3

openSUSE 10.3 completely removes the old update mechanism rug and only leaves a much improved update mechanism zypper which the GUI utilities also use.

To set up our local update repository either use the GUI or the zypper command line tool.

Note that if you currently have some public OpenSUSE update servers configured you need to remove those so that you definitely get your updates from our update server instead of the remote one. This is especially important if your IP address is a private IP address (if it is it likely has a .private. in the hostname) as the public OpenSUSE update servers will then not actually be accessible from your computer unless you are using a local NAT gateway and you may thus get errors when trying to update your system.

Setting up the Local Update Repository Using the GUI

Click Computer and then Control Center from the appearing menu. This will launch the Control Centre window.

Click the Open Administrator Settings (it is under Common Tasks on the left-hand-side of the Control Centre window) and type in the root password when requested. This will launch the YaST Control Centre.

Scroll down and click on Software Repositories (under Software heading). This will open a new window titled Configured Software Repositories - YaST.

Click Add then choose HTTP as the Media Type and click Next.

Enter the following information in the Server and Directory window that now appears.

Repository Name: updates
Protocol: HTTP
Server Name: 131.111.8.10
Directory on Server: /pub/linux/opensuse/update/10.3

Click Next and then Finish. This will complete the process of adding the local updates repository.

You can now check if any updates are available and install them by clicking on Online Update (under Software heading in the YaST Control Centre window).

This will pop up a window titled Patch Selector - YaST listing the available updates. You can select/deselect individual updates here and then click Install to install them.

Do not forget to do this regularly to ensure your system is up-to-date and does not get hacked!

Setting up the Local Update Repository Using the Command Line

Open a Terminal or work on the console and ensure you are logged in as root (you can become root by running the su command and entering the root password when prompted).

To add the local update repository run:

zypper ar http://131.111.8.10/pub/linux/opensuse/update/10.3 updates
zypper ref

You can now check if any updates are available by running:

zypper lu

you can then install all available updates by running:

zypper up

Do not forget to do this regularly to ensure your system is up-to-date and does not get hacked!