Topic: Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: base

[mvdw]

I'm having troubles with my fairly new SME Server. It seems to have lost its configuration database, such that the base repository is not found when I try to install some software.

I do a:

yum install --enablerepo=base <package>

and I get:

==============================================================
WARNING: Additional commands may be required after running yum
==============================================================
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading "smeserver" plugin


Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: base
================================================================
No new rpms were installed. No additional commands are required.
================================================================

I also tried

db yum_repositories show base

, with the following result:

base=repository
    BaseURL=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/os/$basearch
    EnableGroups=0
    Exclude=kernel,kernel-smp,kernel-xenU,mkinitrd,mdadm,initscripts
    GPGCheck=yes
    MirrorList=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=os
    Name=CentOS - os
    Visible=yes
    status=enabled

Any ideas what is wrong with my machine (if anything)? Or is it simply something screwy with the centos.org site?

Cheers,
mvdw

[cactus]

Are you syre you have a connction to the internet from your server? The base repository configuration is correct, but you might also get the same error when your internet connection is down.

What is the installation history? Straight installation of SME Server 7.2 from Cd or an upgrade from a previous release. If the later is true did you follow the update instructions in the wiki: http://wiki.contribs.org/Updating_to_SME_7.2 ?

[mvdw]

Yes, I'm sure I can connect to the net: I am able to wget the packages manually, and then use "yum localinstall <rpmname>" with no problems cutting and pasting the rpm link from the centos web site into the ssh terminal logged into the smeserver.

The machine is a fresh install; 7.2 from a CD, installed the day before yesterday as my first SME server installation, previously I had an IPCop machine, an ubuntu server machine, and a Sun machine also running ubuntu performing the same function as this single x86 box.

There's a lot to like about SME server, I've just been having a few teething problems with getting my head around the way it works, and its differences from previous linux distributions I've used/administered.

[eastend99]

Just tried to update two different Servers which both had the same error: Error: Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: base

Both servers delivered a valid yum-update-available e-mail message last night at 04:00.

With a normal browser the URL's are accessible.

Anyone else the same problems ?

[william_syd]

Is [base] listed..

Code: [Select]

cat /etc/yum.conf


Code: [Select]

[base]
enabled=1
mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&repo=os
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/4/os/$basearch
name=CentOS - os
gpgcheck=1
enablegroups=0
exclude=kernel kernel-smp kernel-xenU mkinitrd mdadm initscripts

Did you try a..

Code: [Select]

yum clean all?

[eastend99]

Did not change a thing, but it is working now for both servers.
Seems to have been a temporary and localized? problem.

regards,
Marcel

[william_syd]

Good.

It's using a mirror list from Centos not the BaseURL.

Putting something like http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=4&arch=i386&repo=os into a browser should show where the files are coming from.

[cactus]

Did not change a thing, but it is working now for both servers.
Seems to have been a temporary and localized? problem.

regards,
Marcel

I had the same problem with one of our CentOS 5 servers today, reported this bug in the bugtracker of CentOS. You were probably hit by the same problem as you mentioned it is now working again.

[Elliott]

Bringing this back to the top to "borrow" the thread... I'm having this same issue with one of my installations. The machine is able to trace to most locations but not mirrorlist.centos.org (or ping).

A 'yum clean all' command finishes without issue but the yum update is getting the 'Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: base' error.

To make matters worse, the machine that's not updating is the one we use for VPN tunnels into our network and it seems to be effecting that process in some weird ways.

My yum.conf has this entry for base:

Code: [Select]

[base]
enabled=1
mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever&arch=$basearch&rep
name=CentOS - os
gpgcheck=1
enablegroups=0
exclude=kernel kernel-smp mkinitrd mdadm initscripts
Browsing to http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=4&arch=i386&repo=os in a browser gives the following response:

Code: [Select]

http://styx.biochem.wfubmc.edu/mirror/CentOS/4.6/os/i386/
http://mirrors.rit.edu/centos/4.6/os/i386/
http://mirror.rhsmith.umd.edu/pub/centos/4.6/os/i386/
http://ftp.usf.edu/pub/centos/4.6/os/i386/
http://holmes.umflint.edu/centos/4.6/os/i386/
http://centos.omnispring.com/4.6/os/i386/
http://pubmirrors.reflected.net/centos/4.6/os/i386/
http://dds.gina.alaska.edu/public/mirrors/centos/4.6/os/i386/
http://mirror.cs.vt.edu/pub/CentOS/4.6/os/i386/
http://updates.interworx.info/centos/4.6/os/i386/

So this might be a different problem than that being reported in the CentOs bug tracker since it seems like my local server is having problems doing lookups for the centos mirrors...

Consequently, the SME server is able to trace or ping other random hosts that I try.

Ideas?

[Elliott]

And let me add this...

From the SME machine, I can DIG www.centos.org but not mirrorlist.centos.org

Isn't that odd?

[cactus]

And let me add this...

From the SME machine, I can DIG www.centos.org but not mirrorlist.centos.org

Isn't that odd?

I guess you have some local issues then as I am (at the time of writing able to dig both:

Code: [Select]

[root@sme73test ~]# dig www.contribs.org

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> www.contribs.org
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 12970
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.contribs.org.              IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.contribs.org.       43193   IN      CNAME   contribs.org.
contribs.org.           293     IN      A       75.146.90.141

;; Query time: 17 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.55.1#53(192.168.55.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Jul 15 17:34:21 2008
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 64

[root@sme73test ~]#

Code: [Select]

[root@sme73test ~]# dig mirrorlist.centos.org

; <<>> DiG 9.2.4 <<>> mirrorlist.centos.org
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 50590
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mirrorlist.centos.org.         IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mirrorlist.centos.org.  87      IN      A       204.15.73.243

;; Query time: 14 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.55.1#53(192.168.55.1)
;; WHEN: Tue Jul 15 17:34:25 2008
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 55

[root@sme73test ~]#

[Elliott]

Well as if by magic {as the original poster claimed} I just tried again after lunch and it worked.

I'm not able to ping, trace, and dig mirrorlist.

Odd.... very odd.