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Cannot open/read repomd.xml file for repository: rpmforge
failure: repodata/repomd.xml from rpmforge: [Errno 256] No more mirrors to try.

Error: failure: repodata/repomd.xml from rpmforge: [Errno 256] No more
mirrors to try.

–==–==–

This repository connection error can happen after a fresh OS or repository installation. In this case the example will be the third party repository rpmforge which I based my decision to use CentOS as a Desktop OS.

Fortunately this matter was resolved with one Yum update option. Hopefully it will work as easily for you.

–==–==–

rpmforge connection error

Before you do anything, make sure you have ‘yum-priories’ installed and priorities set correctly in your installed repository files located in the /etc/ym.repos.d directory.

/etc/ym.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
[base] priority=1 [updates] priority=1 [addons] priority=1 [extras] priority=1 [centosplus] priority=2

/etc/ym.repos.d/rpmforge.repo
[rpmforge] priority=10 (You may or may not need to uncomment the ‘baseurl‘ below. In my case I did.)

# Name: RPMforge RPM Repository for Red Hat Enterprise 5 - dag
# URL: http://rpmforge.net/
[rpmforge]
name = Red Hat Enterprise $releasever - RPMforge.net - dag
baseurl = http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/$basearch/dag
mirrorlist = http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/mirrors-rpmforge
#mirrorlist = file:///etc/yum.repos.d/mirrors-rpmforge
enabled = 1
protect = 0
gpgkey = file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-rpmforge-dag
gpgcheck = 1
priority=10

–==–==–

The Fix

Run the yum update option below even if your rpmforge repository is already enabled. The ‘check-update’ option will set everything into motion without actually engaging the update process.
yum --enablerepo=rpmforge check-update

You should see something like the example below, depending on your installed plugins and the number of files excluded due to priority configuration.

Loading “skip-broken” plugin
Loading “priorities” plugin
Loading “kernel-module” plugin
Loading “fastestmirror” plugin
Loading “installonlyn” plugin
Loading “kmod” plugin
Setting up repositories
http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/i386/dag/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 12] Timeout:
Trying other mirror.
http://rh-mirror.linux.iastate.edu/pub/dag/redhat/el5/en/i386/dag/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 12] Timeout:
Trying other mirror.
rpmforge 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:02
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
Reading repository metadata in from local files
255 packages excluded due to repository priority protections

Once you see rpmforge loading with the rest of the repositories (below), you will have cashed the necessary files in your /var/cash/yum/rpmforge directory and you have got the repository connection problem fixed.

rpmforge 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:02

Or, try installing packages you wish to install from the repository like the example below.

yum --enablerepo=rpmforge install fuse fuse-ntfs-3g dkms dkms-fuse

That should do it. Keep in mind that like any other site/repo, rpmforge may actually be down from time to time.

As always, your questions and comments are welcome.

Tim Valentine
Access Website Design
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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 9:54 am and is filed under Software.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.