Updating qemu-kvm on Centos 7.9

Our Neighbors CentOS
1

Hello,

I would like to look at updating the version of qemu-kvm on an install of Centos 7.9 x86_64. None of the repositories are working anymore and all of the generic package sites I have looked at no longer have anything available other than CentSO 9.

My current version is,

$ /usr/libexec/qemu-kvm --version
QEMU emulator version 1.5.3 (qemu-kvm-1.5.3-175.el7_9.6), Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard

I think this version is rather old. I am in the process of upgrading from CentOS 7 but I have several things I need to finish first.

There are some qemu-kvm packages available at vault.centos.org
Index of /7.9.2009/virt/x86_64/kvm-common/Packages/q

but I’m not sure what in this long list I need, or if this is even what I need at all. My barely functioning package manager shows,

qemu-guest-agent
qemu-img
qemu-kvm
qemu-kvm-common

as being installed. There are no updates listed even though some of the packages listed on the site I linked to above look newer.

Any suggestions as to what to do?

LMHmedchem

2

If you are needing a good copy of CentOS 7, then you may need to have a local archive. I wrote this earlier in that case: SmoogeSpace: How to archive a local copy of CentOS 7 This is the best way to make sure you have all the packages you might need for the next couple of years.

If you are just needing to keep a system for a short time, you can edit the entries in /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-vault.repo or do the following:

$ sudo cat > /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-EOL.repo
# CentOS Vault contains rpms from older releases in the CentOS-7
# tree.

# C7.9.2009
[C7.9.2009-base]
name=CentOS-7.9.2009 - Base
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/os/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7
enabled=1

[C7.9.2009-updates]
name=CentOS-7.9.2009 - Updates
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/updates/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7
enabled=1

[C7.9.2009-extras]
name=CentOS-7.9.2009 - Extras
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/extras/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7
enabled=1

[C7.9.2009-centosplus]
name=CentOS-7.9.2009 - CentOSPlus
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/centosplus/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7
enabled=1

Then hit control-D to end the file. Then you should be able to do a

sudo yum -y update

And get the system to the latest versions that CentOS Linux 7 shipped. If you need NEWER versions than that, then you can only move to CentOS Stream 9 OR to Alma/Rocky/Oracle/etc Linux

2 Likes
3

You could also look into moving the Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

You can sign up for a developer subscription and use the convert2rhel tool. That’ll get you into a more supported state and set you up for doing in-place upgrades to RHEL8!

1 Like
4

That is probably a good idea. I already switched all of my repo files to vault but the last time I tried to open yumex it wouldn’t open because it couldn’t connect to one of them.

I haven’t been able to sift through all of the entries to find the issue. I do need to keep using this for a bit. I don’t know if there would anything available in a local repo that I don’t already have. It is possible that I already have the newest version that is supported by my OS.

Looking at the vault site I linked to above, there are newer listed packages for,

qemu-img
qemu-kvm
qemu-kvm-tools
qemu-kvm-common

which is everything listed in my package manager except for qemu-guest-agent. Since these are on the

CentOS 7.9 vault site, I assume that they are compatible. I will probably download the latest version of those packages and install them. Hopefully that will help with the issues I am seeing and not break anything. If it does, there is always the clonezilla image if I can’t undo it.

I probably won’t be using Cent or RHEL anymore after moving off of Cent. None of the folks I work with have any interest in the concept of a stream OS and most of them have moved to Debian or Suse. I will likely do the same because it is generally easier to be on the same platform.

LMHmedchem