How To Install yum On RHEL 4

There are more than a couple of ways of updating Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) packages on your machine. One is by using up2date, the default package updater of RHEL systems. Unlike Fedora and CentOS which uses yum, up2date requires you to be registered to Red Hat Network (RHN) to be able to download or update your packages from the RHN repository.


Now, what if you need to install a certain package that is not available in your current repository by up2date? Or what if the package in the repository wreaks havoc in your system? Maybe you should try using yum to install or update rpm packages.


How can I install yum in my RHEL machine?, you may ask. It’s actually very simple.


1. Download yum by using wget


# wget http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/download/2.0/yum-2.0.8-1.noarch.rpm


click here to Download file 


2. Install the rpm


# rpm -ivh yum-2.0.8-1.noarch.rpm


3. Configure /etc/yum.conf to use compatible repository


[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest
distroverpkg=redhat-release
tolerant=1
exactarch=1


[base]
name=CentOS-$releasever – Base
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/os/i386/
gpgcheck=1
[updates]
name=Red Hat Linux $releasever – Updates
baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/updates/i386/
gpgcheck=1


4. Download and install the CentOS GPG Key


# wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-4


click here to Download file


# rpm –import RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-4


5. Test yum to see if it works (I tested by running full update on my machine)


# yum update


*Note: This will update ALL installed packages in your machine. If you do not want to do this, cancel the process or skip this step.


If you reach step 5 without encountering any errors, it means that yum is successfully updating your machine with the latest
versions available in the repo.


This worked perfectly fine for me. If you experienced any errors, post a message and I will try to help you out.