Test your connectivity with RHN:
telnet xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com 443

You should get this:
[root@jaws root]# telnet xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com 443
Trying 66.187.232.101...
Connected to xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com (66.187.232.101).
Escape character is '^]'.


Are there any other network issues? Proxy server?

i have just re-installed RH9 Linux (again as a server), mainly cos I needed to put a Doze partition on to have w2k on there as well.

I downloaded the stuff from RHN for up2date and tried the --nodeps, still doesnt work.

Tried the telnet, but get error:-

Temporary failure in name resolution
rhn.redhat.com: Hostname lookup failure

I tried the same telnet command on a Doze pc on the same network/proxy server and it connects ok to RHN.

There must be some little setting I need to change to make it work, any clues please??

Sounds like a DNS issue, check your /etc/resolv.conf file, make sure you can ping your nameservers. Can you resolve other hostnames?

try to ping xmlrpc.redhat.com then try to ping the IP address 66.187.232.101

Examples:

# cat /etc/resolv.conf
; generated by /sbin/dhclient-script
nameserver 10.0.0.254
nameserver 10.0.0.253

# ping xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com
PING xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com (66.187.232.101) from 10.0.0.1 : 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com (66.187.232.101): icmp_seq=1 ttl=126 time=75.5 ms
64 bytes from xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com (66.187.232.101): icmp_seq=2 ttl=126 time=68.4 ms

--- xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% loss, time 1010ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 68.412/71.967/75.523/3.565 ms

# ping 66.187.232.101
PING 66.187.232.101 (66.187.232.101) from 10.0.0.1 : 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 66.187.232.101: icmp_seq=1 ttl=126 time=82.5 ms
64 bytes from 66.187.232.101: icmp_seq=2 ttl=126 time=82.2 ms
64 bytes from 66.187.232.101: icmp_seq=3 ttl=126 time=75.2 ms

--- 66.187.232.101 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% loss, time 2016ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 75.224/79.987/82.505/3.369 ms

I just had a similar issue with RHN. In my case, after up2date update, the system profile on the RHN website had entered a second system profile that was no longer the sign-on name I had been using. I deleted the new profile, checked the original system profile, and changed my entitlements from none to demo. All now works as before. Hope this helps.

Ignoring package dependencies is an ugly workaround and can be the source of problems in case you've got wrong packages. Normally, you would download both packages, up2date and up2date-gnome, and install both at once:

rpm -Fvh up2date*
or:
rpm -Uvh up2date*

or explicit:
rpm -Uvh up2date-gnome-3.9.26-2.i386.rpm up2date-3.9.26-2.i386.rpm

I too was having probs and after readin here i tried some things...and im cool with up2date now!!! ...Thanks!!!

Heres what i did!
wget -q -O - https://rhn.redhat.com/help/new-cert.sh | /bin/bash
Testing SSL connectivity against https://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/XMLRPC ...
Connectivity OK, test succeeded

The file /usr/share/rhn/RHNS-CA-CERT has been successfully updated.
Please run 'up2date' to download the latest updates.

OOH and BTW.......26 mins. of updates....on cable!!!

I followed the instructions from:
https://rhn.redhat.com/help/latest-up2date.pxt
md5sum 'filename' worked fine
rpm -Fvh up2date-* worked fine
up2date -p asked me to run up2date --register
up2date --register ran the update agent, but when I clicked 'forward'
the console was filled by rubbish from traceback and the console froze.

Any help would be gratefully received.
Thanks,
Chris

That doesn't sound right unless you didn't have a RHN account before.
What version of Red Hat Linux?

What version of up2date? rpm -qa 'up2date*'

What traceback output? You could run up2date from a terminal program and redirect its output to a file:
up2date &> output.txt

I have a virgin copy of RedHat 9, which I have not been able to register yet.

[root@MMME1 pascal]# rpm -qa 'up2date*'
up2date-3.1.23.2-1
up2date-gnome-3.1.23.2-1

Traceback output:
[root@MMME1 pascal]# up2date --register
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/gui.py", line 405, in onPrivacyPagePrepare text = rhnreg.privacyText()
File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rhnreg.py", line 176, in privacyText
return rpcServer.doCall(s.registration.privacy_statement)
File "/usr/share/rhn/up2date_client/rpcServer.py", line 114, in doCall
ret = apply(method, args, kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/xmlrpclib.py", line 821, in __call__
return self.__send(self.__name, args)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py", line 126, in _request
verbose=self._verbose
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/transports.py", line 112, in request
connection = self.get_connection(host)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/transports.py", line 239, in get_connection
trusted_certs=self.trusted_certs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/connections.py", line 184, in __init__
HTTPProxyConnection.__init__(self, proxy, host, port, username, password)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/connections.py", line 119, in __init__
HTTPConnection.__init__(self, proxy)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/connections.py", line 50, in __init__
httplib.HTTPConnection.__init__(self, host, port)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/httplib.py", line 491, in __init__
self._set_hostport(host, port)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/httplib.py", line 502, in _set_hostport
raise InvalidURL("nonnumeric port: '%s'" % host[i+1:])
httplib.InvalidURL: nonnumeric port: '8080/'

I forgot to say thanks to Misc!

Try to remove your system profile from RHN website, then re-register the system. If you re-register and get errors, remove the RPM's and re-install them. Check your md5 sum, check the package names. Clear out /var/spool/up2date, clear out /etc/sysconfig/rhn/

good luck

If that doesn't work, grab your original rpm's from your CD's and use the wget stuff posted here.

Thanks for your reply.

I'm a newbie and would be grateful if you would let me know how to remove and reinstall the RPMs.

Thanks,
Chris

Don't reinstall up2date. It doesn't look like it's necessary. It looks more like you made a configuration mistake when you configured a proxy server. Check your up2date configuration: up2date --configure

Or post the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date file. I'm sure at least the httpProxy= line is wrong.

I have reloaded my RedHat 9 from scratch.

The md5sums are fine:
md5sum *
3faabcb9cc610627fe378b88d0b2b928 up2date-3.1.23.2-1.i386.rpm
733d0aca17c15af0b1fa709ba86337dc up2date-gnome-3.1.23.2-1.i386.rpm

The rpm -Fvh up2date-* was fine:
rpm -Fvh up2date-*
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:up2date ########################################### [ 50%]
2:up2date-gnome ########################################### [100%]

However, up2date --register now gives:
Fatal error retrieving privacy statement: name or service not known

up2date --configure looks OK
RedHat server: https://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/XMLRPC
The proxy is correct too.

Any ideas or help would be gratefully received.

Many thanks,
Chris

Here is the contents of my /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date file:

[root@MMME1 rhn]# cat up2date
# Automatically generated Red Hat Update Agent config file, do not edit.
# Format: 1.0
networkSetup[comment]=None
networkSetup=1

retrieveOnly[comment]=Retrieve packages only
retrieveOnly=0

enableRollbacks[comment]=Determine if up2date should create rollback rpms
enableRollbacks=0

pkgSkipList[comment]=A list of package names, optionally including wildcards, to skip
pkgSkipList=kernel*;

storageDir[comment]=Where to store packages and other data when they are retrieved
storageDir=/var/spool/up2date

adminAddress[comment]=List of e-mail addresses for update agent to communicate with when run in batch mode
adminAddress=root@localhost;

noBootLoader[comment]=To disable modification of the boot loader (lilo, silo, etc)
noBootLoader=0

serverURL[comment]=Remote server URL
serverURL=https://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/XMLRPC

fileSkipList[comment]=A list of file names, optionally including wildcards, to skip
fileSkipList=;

sslCACert[comment]=The CA cert used to verify the ssl server
sslCACert=/usr/share/rhn/RHNS-CA-CERT

noReplaceConfig[comment]=When selected, no packages that would change configuration data are automatically installed
noReplaceConfig=1

noReboots[comment]=Disable the reboot actions
noReboots=None

useNoSSLForPackages[comment]=Use the noSSLServerURL for package, package list, and header fetching
useNoSSLForPackages=0

systemIdPath[comment]=Location of system id
systemIdPath=/etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid

enableProxyAuth[comment]=To use an authenticated proxy or not
enableProxyAuth=0

retrieveSource[comment]=Retrieve source RPM along with binary package
retrieveSource=1

versionOverride[comment]=Override the automatically determined system version
versionOverride=

headerFetchCount[comment]=The maximimum number of rpm headers to fetch at once
headerFetchCount=10

networkRetries[comment]=Number of attempts to make at network connections before giving up
networkRetries=5

enableProxy[comment]=Use a HTTP Proxy
enableProxy=1

proxyPassword[comment]=The password to use for an authenticated proxy
proxyPassword=

noSSLServerURL[comment]=Remote server URL without SSL
noSSLServerURL=http://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/XMLRPC

keepAfterInstall[comment]=Keep packages on disk after installation
keepAfterInstall=1

proxyUser[comment]=The username for an authenticated proxy
proxyUser=

removeSkipList[comment]=A list of package names, optionally including wildcards
that up2date will not remove
removeSkipList=kernel*;

useGPG[comment]=Use GPG to verify package integrity
useGPG=1

gpgKeyRing[comment]=The location of the gpg keyring to use for package checking
gpgKeyRing=/etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date-keyring.gpg

debug[comment]=Whether or not debugging is enabled
debug=0

httpProxy[comment]=HTTP proxy in hostort format, e.g. squid.redhat.com:3128
httpProxy=http://www.ncl.ac.uk/default.pac

headerCacheSize[comment]=The maximum number of rpm headers to cache in ram
headerCacheSize=40

forceInstall[comment]=Force package installation, ignoring package, file and config file skip list
forceInstall=0

noReboot[comment]=Disable the reboot action
noReboot=0