RHEL 6.1 yum repository

So you have Redhat 6.1 Enterprise installed, but now you need to setup some local repositories from the DVD which the system was created.  So here is a quick guide on how to do it -

First install the createrepo command, else we can create our yum repository.

# rpm -ivh --aid /mnt/Packages/deltarpm-3.5-0.5.20090913git.el6.ppc64.rpm

# rpm -ivh --aid /mnt/Packages/python-deltarpm-3.5-0.5.20090913git.el6.ppc64.rpm

# rpm -ivh --aid /mnt/Packages/createrepo-0.9.8-4.el6.noarch.rpm

Mount the installation DVD.

# mount /dev/dvd /mnt

Copy over the packages to a folder.

# mkdir /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel6.1

# cp /mnt/Packages/* /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel6.1

When you copy over the files you will also find a *.xml library file, either in the same dir as the source or in a sub that needs to be copied over for the next command.
Create the repo with the createrepo command.

# createrepo -g repomd.xml /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel6.1

Create the repo file.

vi /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel61.repo

[RHEL-Repository]
name=RHEL 6.1
baseurl=file:///etc/yum.repos.d/rhel6.1
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

Update yum's repo list.

# yum clean all

Loaded plugins: product-id, subscription-manager
Updating Red Hat repositories.
RHEL-Repository                                              | 1.3 kB     00:00 ...
RHEL-Repository/primary                                      | 1.5 MB     00:00 ...
RHEL-Repository                                                           3210/3210
repo id                                repo name                             status
RHEL-Repository                        RHEL 6.1                              3,210
repolist: 3,210

Then test.

# yum search httpd
Loaded plugins: product-id, subscription-manager
Updating Red Hat repositories.
======================== N/S Matched: httpd =======================================
httpd.ppc64 : Apache HTTP Server

httpd-devel.ppc : Development interfaces for the Apache HTTP server
httpd-devel.ppc64 : Development interfaces for the Apache HTTP server
httpd-manual.noarch : Documentation for the Apache HTTP server
httpd-tools.ppc64 : Tools for use with the Apache HTTP Server
mod_dav_svn.ppc64 : Apache httpd module for Subversion server
mod_dnssd.ppc64 : An Apache HTTPD module which adds Zeroconf support

  Name and summary matches only, use "search all" for everything.

RHEL Kernel image to large

Interesting issue today in trying to install Redhat 6 on a POWER System, so that if you see this error -


Welcome to yaboot version 1.3.14 (Red Hat 1.3.14-35.el6)
Enter "help" to get some basic usage information
boot: linux
Please wait, loading kernel...
   Elf64 kernel loaded...
Loading ramdisk...
Claim failed for initrd memory at 02000000 rc=ffffffff


Now after some searching on Bugzilla I found what looked like my problem, from this I have done a little testing and resolved the issue as detailed below:


Boot the POWER server and enter the OpenFirmware prompt with selection 8 at the IBM menu on start, then run the following command at the OK prompt -


0 > printenv real-base

If you see the following the I
-------------- Partition: common -------- Signature: 0x70 ---------------
real-base                2000000             2000000


Now if I have understood this correctly the firmware is expecting a image of 32MB and in our case for RHEL6 it is 16MB (or smaller) so we need to set it correctly, as below -


0 > setenv real-base 1000000
0 > printenv real-base
-------------- Partition: common -------- Signature: 0x70 ---------------
real-base                1000000              2000000


Then reboot with a -

0 > reset-all


Then boot of the RHEL image as normal and you should find all install from this point will work OK, in this case it was a virtual server so until the LPAR is removed from the HMC.


Ref -

• 2000000 is 32MB
• 1800000 is 24MB
• 1000000 is 16MB
• c00000 is 12MB