On my CentOS 5.1 server when I execute
yum --security check-update
it fails with messages like

"...
epel/updateinfo | 514 kB 00:00
http://mirror.seas.harvard.edu/epel/...teinfo.xml.gz: [Errno -3] Error performing checksum
Trying other mirror.
... (then finally) ...
Error: failure: repodata/73f710ca75f4879d6e4c7c08c4bac44f3a3b50f57756e5d711665bcd40e735cf-updateinfo.xml.gz from epel: [Errno 256] No more mirrors to try.
#"

I have tried various solutions such as updating all the packages (system is up to date) and yum clean commands etc.. Any clues as to why the inability to check for security updates?
Thanks for your time!

I am having the same issue with both 32 and 64bit systems trying to update from epel. I posted in the epel IRC channel on freenode last night. I found some information mentioning this exact issue and a brief explanation: http://seriousbirder.com/blogs/yum-e...hecksum-error/

The checksum type used in repomd.xml and for packages in the metadata can be sha256 or older sha1 or sha. The default is now “sha256″, all RHEL 6 or Centos 6 kernels use sha256 by default when createrepo is run. If your repository was created on a RHEL 6 system and a RHEL 5 client is running a yum install, this is where the problem will arise. The older yum version 3.0 doesn’t support the sha256 checksum and can only support sha, and not sha1. Yum 3.0 must use sha. So the fix is simple, try to create your repo using sha instead of the default sha256.

It looks like the files were updated on March 22nd 2014. I am wondering if whoever made the changes did so using a newer version of yum (sha256).

is this a typo ???
centos 5.1 is 9 versions and 6 years out of date
the repos for 5.1 were moved 6 years ago to the historic archive

there have been NO updates( security or any) for centos 5.1 for SIX YEARS

you will have problems
ones that are UNSOLVABLE

if you NEED the older legacy version of cent5
upgrade / install the current CentOS 5.10

I found another site describing the same issue:

http://blog.debroglie.net/2011/08/19...ming-checksum/

I found another site describing the same issue:

http://blog.debroglie.net/2011/08/19...ming-checksum/

We have been continuously updating our system with security and application packages:
From the centos wiki: http://wiki.centos.org/FAQ/General
item 21, the end of life of CentOS 5 is updates until Mar 31, 2017.

The last security packages were from 2013. Here is more system data:

$ uname -a
Linux hostname.was.printed.here 2.6.18-371.el5 #1 SMP Tue Oct 1 08:37:57 EDT 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
$ cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS release 5.10 (Final)
$

** FIXED **
I found a fix based on a post from NeoZer0 two years ago with the phrase "RHEL 5 issue" near the bottom of this page:
https://github.com/dagwieers/mrepo/issues/29
The wget link NeoZer0 supplied is broken however the following equivalent commands worked on my system:

sudo yum install python-devel
(I found python-devel was already installed)
sudo yum install python-hashlib
(this installed the package
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
python-hashlib i386 20081119-4.el5 epel 12 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
)
Then the 'yum --security check-update' command was fixed:
$ sudo yum --security check-update
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: mirror.atlanticmetro.net
* epel: mirror.seas.harvard.edu
* extras: mirrors.advancedhosters.com
* updates: mirror.trouble-free.net
Limiting package lists to security relevant ones
No packages needed, for security, 0 available
$

1 members found this post helpful.

YES! Tom, thank you! That fixed the issue!