Anaconda and Yum?

[pileofrogs]

One of the "big features" of FC6 is the full integration of yum into anaconda. I would assume that would mean I could boot to my install CD, maybe type in the URL of some yum repos and then during install, anaconda would use yum to check for updates, so that the very first version installed would be the latest. In the past, I've rolled my own installation mirror with the latest RPMs, and if I can skip that work for FC6, I'd be a happy guy!

I've done one FC6 upgrade, and I didn't see anything about yum repos. I've poked around the Fedora docs, google and these forums (fori?) and I haven't seen anyone talking about any new yum features in FC6. I saw that there are new yum-ish kickstart options...

So! My questions are:

(1) Is there a magic way to install FC6 with the latest versions of the RPMS?
(2) What nifty features did we gain by integrating yum into anaconda, and how do I use them?

Thanks!!
-Pileofrogs

[Jman]

Extras should be on by default if there's network, although I think that 3rd party require special boot options. Release notes indicate you can use kickstart to specify repos.

Possibly if you had network it would check for the latest updates? I think we're on a transition release where anaconda now can do it, it's just not configured to.

The layout of packages in "Core" may change in FC7 with some of the proposed reorganization, probably enabling the install the latest from anaconda feature.

You named the reasons for doing this, installing an updated system and specifying other repos. And using yum instead of anaconda's dependency stuff.

[pileofrogs]

Do you know what having extras available will do? Will it offer more stuff at the pick-your-packages section of the install?

[Dies]

Yes, it already does that if you select the Extras repo during the install it will show you a LOT more packages, but unfortunately it tends to hang, so I think that's why Jman mentioned a transition release.

Unfortunately when FC is first released there's so many people installing and accessing the repos at the same time that maybe it just makes sense to wait till the system is up to start adding packages and applying updates. I guess with more bandwidth it might not slow the install down too much.

But that's my guess so if I'm wrong feel free to correct me on that.

[pileofrogs]

I created a mirror of the core and updates repo on a local http server, and then created another repo containing all the RPMS from both core and updartes. After running createrepo on that new blended repository, I was able to use it as the install source for an upgrade from FC5 to FC6, and as you might hope, the newer versions of stuff got installed!

This is way easier than before (FC5) when I had to write a script to pick only the latest versions of the RPMS and then generate an anaconda compatable environment.

-Pileofrogs

[Jman]

If one could point anaconda at both the base and the updates repositories and it just figured it out and installed the latest, that would be really cool. I don't think it's there yet.