Repository, Package installation failure

[newtolinux]

Hi to all,
I am slowing becoming familiar with various aspects of a Linux environment.
At the present time I am attempting to install Postfix.

I am running Core 6 Fedora. I currently have a simple wep page using the Apache service on this system.

I am following instructions from this site: http://www.linux.com/articles/52506
(This site provides step by step procedures for Postfix installation.)

I have followed all instructions up to and including the command :
yum install postfix dovecot spamassassin squirrelmail clamav clamav-server clamav-update clamav-lib
clamav-data amavisd-new

When I run the command listed above I get the following messsage:

Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
core 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
http://ftp.belnet.be/packages/dries.ulyssis.org/fedora/linux/6/%24basesearch/dries/RPMS/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404: Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:03:12 GMT
Server: Apache
Content-Length: 380
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1

Trying other mirror.
Error: Cannot open/read repomd.xml file for repository: dries
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's it.... I'm new to this and I'm sure that I'll eventually stumble on the solution but I would appreciate any
suggestions that would help speed up this installation and thus allow me to focus more on the general concepts of Linux services. ( That's my skill level presently.)

Thanks for any comments.

[John A]

Maybe not the best solution, but try changing the line in /etc/yum.repos.d/dries.repo from

http://ftp.belnet.be/packages/dries.ulyssis.org/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/dries/RPMS/

to

http://ftp.belnet.be/packages/dries.ulyssis.org/fedora/linux/$releasever/i386/dries/RPMS/

Or perhaps you accidentally typed an extra '$'?

[newtolinux]

Thank you joeprogrammer.

"i386" worked.

I wanted to see if I understand the basics of what just happened. ( A simple response from you such as.." yes you're on the right track " or "No you need to research scripting much more before trying to figure this out" would be more than helpful.)

Here goes:
1st Icreated the repository. It contained 2 variables : $servver determines what platform I'm using and $basesearch determines what processor I'm using
2nd: I downloaded the proper encryption key
3rd: I typed yum install postfix devcot....etcetera

Then, what I think happend is this:
By typing yum install postfix etcetera the program worked INTERNALLY on my sytstem to locate URL that the Dries file contained
Then, my system contacted that website.
Once at that web site the directory path that I wrote in the Dries file showed those 2 variables
(version and basearch)
Because of those 2 variables.... the PROGRAM that is running AT the website said " ok I'm going to give this sytem that just contacted me
the correct postfix files, but first I see that those 2 variables want ME to figure out what version this system is.

So... the program can't figure out what processor I'm using. And I get the error message.

By changing $basesearch to i386 per your instructions., I in essence took the guess work out of determining what processor I am using.
FOR the program at that website.

Am I close? Or should I do a lot more research before posting such comments.

Thanks again for the "repair".

[John A]

>1st Icreated the repository.
Technically, a repository is where all the software is stored. What you were editing was a configuration file that tells your package manager which repositories to get the software you need from.

>2nd: I downloaded the proper encryption key
Not quite. While GPG is used for encryption, in this case, the GPG key is used to ensure that the file that you downloaded isn't damaged or has been tampered with. The computer generates a GPG key from the file that you downloaded and compares this with the key you downloaded. If they match, the file is good to go.

>Because of those 2 variables.... the PROGRAM that is running AT the website said " ok I'm
>going to give this sytem that just contacted me the correct postfix files, but first I see that
>those 2 variables want ME to figure out what version this system is.
Actually, yum takes care of the variables. It's not the web server's job to figure out what architecture you're running under; the variables are simply for convenience so that you don't have to update this file as often. However, In this case, your system's architecture isn't likely to change, so hardcoding it in isn't much of a stretch. I don't know why yum failed to recognize this variable, however.