This is a new installation. I have activated the subscription and the Novell Center Patch Finder shows 636 patches available but Yast → Online Update shows no patches available.
Product details shows an active subscription and the Systems tab shows it checked in at 12:00AM on 11/4 but under the Updates column it shows “No Data” and Installed Products it shows zero.
What do I need to do to configure this system to find and use the update repos and pull patches.
Hi UniXpress,
[QUOTE=UniXpress;17253]This is a new installation. I have activated the subscription and the Novell Center Patch Finder shows 636 patches available but Yast → Online Update shows no patches available.
Product details shows an active subscription and the Systems tab shows it checked in at 12:00AM on 11/4 but under the Updates column it shows “No Data” and Installed Products it shows zero.
What do I need to do to configure this system to find and use the update repos and pull patches.[/QUOTE]
if I read this right, you have registered the server with the NCC (else it wouldn’t show a “last query date” online) - have you run a repository refresh (“zypper ref”) on the server in question and checked that the proper repositories are enabled at all (“zypper sl”)?
With regards,
Jens
Actually, I haven’t but: (Where is this documented?)
lclinux:~ # zypper ref
Refreshing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4
URI: cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0
Please insert media [Failed to mount cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0 on /var/adm/mount/AP_0x00000001: No medium found (mount: No medium found)
] # 1 and type ‘y’ to continue or ‘n’ to cancel the operation. [y/n]: n
Error while refreshing the source: Can’t provide //media.1 from cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0All system sources have been refreshed.
lclinux:~ # zypper sl
–±--------±--------±-----±------------------------------------±-----------------------
1 | Yes | No | YaST | SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 | cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0
lclinux:~ # man zypper
Reformatting zypper(8), please wait…
I am not on site. Should/how do I disable the install media?
Hi UniXpress,
[QUOTE=UniXpress;17277]Actually, I haven’t but: (Where is this documented?)
lclinux:~ # zypper ref
Refreshing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4
URI: cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0
Please insert media [Failed to mount cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0 on /var/adm/mount/AP_0x00000001: No medium found (mount: No medium found)
] # 1 and type ‘y’ to continue or ‘n’ to cancel the operation. [y/n]: n
Error while refreshing the source: Can’t provide //media.1 from cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0All system sources have been refreshed.
lclinux:~ # zypper sl
–±--------±--------±-----±------------------------------------±-----------------------
1 | Yes | No | YaST | SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 | cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0
lclinux:~ # man zypper
Reformatting zypper(8), please wait…
I am not on site. Should/how do I disable the install media?[/QUOTE]
You can disable the repos via YaST - “Software” - “installation source”. This is usually done when you have another source, i.e. via network. If you want to usually use physical media to install SLES components, leave it activated 
I don’t have a SLES10 system at hand, but would strongly expect the online repositories to be listed via “zypper sl”… and since there aren’t any, your system won’t see any updates. The repositories are automatically added when you register the server with the NCC.
Where is this documented?
https://www.suse.com/documentation/sles10/book_sle_reference/data/sec_i_yast2_endconf.html - “Novell Customer Center Configuration”
I though wonder why you can see the system (including patch status) online, when the server isn’t registered…
Regards,
Jens
Thank you for your help.
I called the Activation/Registration line and they said it was in fact registered. They rebuilt something on their end and the server downloaded some stuff. It now shows these repos:
SLES-10-SP4-Updates
SLES-10-SP4-Pool
And the online update pulls a bunch of patches.
Hi UniXpress,
thanks for the update! Fixing things centrally is far beyond my reach, so it’s good to see the SuSE team could help 
Just to satisfy my curiosity: Did you have to re-run the registration process?
Regards,
Jens
It is not so much that I had to retry the registration but did so trying to resolve the issue. Since I was running YaST remotely with very limited bandwidth, I got stuck with trying to figure out the w3m browser again. This time it came up with my email and the new subscription activation code filled in which was good because I have never been able to use w3m to enter anything!
There was a telephone number on the w3m page which I called. This only helped when they gave me the phone number to the Activation/Registration folks who worked their magic by following a script they admitted they did not understand. I was still in the w3m window when it closed and the little dialog box showed it downloaded repo data. When it finished, I had my repos and the patches showed up in the Online Update window of YaST.
I am looking forward to doing this all over in about a year!
Thanks again. I learned some useful commands from your posts which I will use in the future.
Hi UniXpress,
thanks for the details… and I have one more piece of information: I’ve never had to go through re-registration when updating the license - you can do this online in the NCC (add a new license and “move” the system to the newly added license). From the server’s point of view, nothing actually changes: It registers with a unique system id, which is preserved even across license key changes.
But then, how is one ever to remember operating w3m, if not by using it from time to time 
Regards,
Jens