Finally Yast2 + DownloadInAdvance

Tony

unread,

Nov 24, 2009, 1:52:15 PM11/24/09

to

Hello all,

Not sure if everyone knows this or not, but I will share nonetheless.

Looks like Yast2, or zypp actually, has an option to download all the RPMs
first then install them. This is different from past implementations were
Yast2 would download an RPM then install it then download the next and
install that, etc. The problem with the old way was that if your net
connection failed your system could be in an unstable state (e.g. partially
updated KDE, etc.). I've been burnt by this several times over the various
versions of SuSE.

The only way I found to turn this on was to edit the config file. I couldn't
find a GUI way of doing it. Please share if you know how.

1. Edit (as root) the file: /etc/zypp/zypp.conf
2. Look for "commit.downloadMode". For me, it was commented out which means
the default download-install was being used.
3. Uncomment that line and set it to:
commit.downloadMode = DownloadInAdvance

That's it. Now Yast2 will batch download all the RPMs prior to installing
them. There are other options that can be used. They are described in the
same file just about that line.

Now I can ditch The Smart Package Manager and it's irritating "cannot coerce
type None" error and go back to the bliss that is Yast2!!!

Tony

unread,

Nov 24, 2009, 1:55:48 PM11/24/09

to

Tony wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Not sure if everyone knows this or not, but I will share nonetheless.
>

> 1. Edit (as root) the file: /etc/zypp/zypp.conf

> ...
> Tony

Oh, I forgot to mention something else I found in that config file. You can
also set the delay between when Autorefresh happens. By default it's set to
10min which means that if you use Yast2 within 10 min of the last repo
refresh, the autorefresh wont happen. I set mine to 6 hours (360min) since,
I believe, the mirrors don't sync for 24hrs.

Look for "repo.refresh.delay". You can change it to whatever you like, but I
set mine to 360 as a first go.

Tony

Darklight

unread,

Nov 25, 2009, 3:14:53 AM11/25/09

to

Tony wrote:

smart package manager done that. i always found it better than YaST2 package
management.

Gilbert

unread,

Nov 25, 2009, 4:35:52 AM11/25/09

to

Tony wrote:

> The only way I found to turn this on was to edit the config
file. I
> couldn't find a GUI way of doing it. Please share if you
know how.
>
> 1. Edit (as root) the file: /etc/zypp/zypp.conf
> 2. Look for "commit.downloadMode". For me, it was commented
out which
> means the default download-install was being used.
> 3. Uncomment that line and set it to:
> commit.downloadMode = DownloadInAdvance
>

Is this an 11.2 only feature, my zypp.conf on 11,1 doesn't
contain this entry (commented or otherwise)

Regards

Tony

unread,

Nov 25, 2009, 11:47:25 AM11/25/09

to

Gilbert wrote:
> Is this an 11.2 only feature, my zypp.conf on 11,1 doesn't
> contain this entry (commented or otherwise)
>
> Regards

I'm not sure. I checked by other openSUSE 11.1 computer and it doesn't have
those lines either. I suspect it's in the new Yast2 included in 11.2. Not
sure if Yast in 11.1 can be upgraded to that version though.

Tony

unread,

Nov 25, 2009, 11:49:38 AM11/25/09

to

Darklight wrote:
> smart package manager done that. i always found it better than YaST2
> package management.

Yes, I agree...that is till now. Now that Yast can do this, the overall
experience with Yast is much better than with smart. Specifically, Yast
seems faster (especially when loading the cache). Also, Yast has some really
neat features for upgrading all packages from a repo, webpin is great but
needs more tweaking I think, etc. What I find really hurts smart is the
constant error "cannot coerce type None" which has persisted for months if
not over a year now.