yumex

YUM extender, or yumex for short, is a frontend to the yum and dnf utilities. By default, yumex does not come preinstalled with Fedora 28. This can easily be addressed by installing the yumex utility at the shell:

[root@localhost philip]# dnf install yumex-dnf
Last metadata expiration check: 0:01:38 ago on Thu 02 Aug 2018 10:30:42 AM EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
==========================================================================================================================
Package                              Arch           Version                                        Repository       Size
==========================================================================================================================
Installing:
dnfdragora                           noarch         1.0.1-10.git20180108.b0e8a66.fc28         fedora          364 k
Installing dependencies:
checkpolicy                          x86_64         2.8-1.fc28                                     updates         336 k
dnfdaemon                            noarch         0.3.18-6.fc28                                  fedora           64 k
python3-dnfdaemon                    noarch         0.3.18-6.fc28                                  fedora           23 k
python3-libsemanage                  x86_64         2.7-12.fc28                                    fedora          125 k
Transaction Summary
==========================================================================================================================
Install  23 Packages
Total download size: 5.6 M
Installed size: 17 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y

As you can see, installing yumex on Fedora 28 is fairly simple. For CentOS 7, we first install the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL):

[root@localhost philip]# yum install epel-release
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.as24220.net
 * extras: mirror.as24220.net
 * updates: mirror.as24220.net
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package epel-release.noarch 0:7-11 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package                Arch             Version         Repository        Size
================================================================================
Installing:
epel-release           noarch           7-11            extras            15 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  1 Package
Total download size: 15 k
Installed size: 24 k
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
epel-release-7-11.noarch.rpm                               |  15 kB   00:03    
Installing : epel-release-7-11.noarch                                     1/1
Verifying  : epel-release-7-11.noarch                                     1/1
Installed:
epel-release.noarch 0:7-11                                                    
Complete!
[root@localhost philip]#

Next, we install the actual yumex utility:

[root@localhost philip]# yum install yumex
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks
epel/x86_64/metalink | 4.0 kB 00:00 
epel | 3.2 kB 00:00 
(1/3): epel/x86_64/group_gz | 88 kB 00:01 
(2/3): epel/x86_64/updateinfo | 927 kB 00:02 
(3/3): epel/x86_64/primary | 3.6 MB 00:00:16 
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.as24220.net
.net
epel 12639/12639
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package yumex.noarch 0:3.0.17-1.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: pexpect for package: yumex-3.0.17-1.el7.noarch
---> Package python2-pyxdg.noarch 0:0.25-6.el7 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
============
Package Arch Version Repository Size
===========
Installing:
yumex noarch 3.0.17-1.el7 epel 444 k
Installing for dependencies:
pexpect noarch 2.3-11.el7 base 142 k
python2-pyxdg noarch 0.25-6.el7 epel 89 k
Transaction Summary
======================================================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package (+2 Dependent packages)
Total download size: 675 k
Installed size: 2.7 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
Downloading packages:
warning: /var/cache/yum/x86_64/7/epel/packages/python2-pyxdg-0.25-6.el7.noarch.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 352c64e5: NOKEY-:--:-- ETA
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 167 kB/s | 675 kB 00:00:04 
Retrieving key from file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-7
Importing GPG key 0x352C64E5:
Userid : "Fedora EPEL (7) <epel@fedoraproject.org>"
Fingerprint: 91e9 7d7c 4a5e 96f1 7f3e 888f 6a2f aea2 352c 64e5
 Package : epel-release-7-11.noarch (@extras)
 From : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-7
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
 Installing : yumex-3.0.17-1.el7.noarch 3/3
warning: /etc/yumex.conf created as /etc/yumex.conf.rpmnew
 Verifying : yumex-3.0.17-1.el7.noarch 1/3
 Verifying : pexpect-2.3-11.el7.noarch 3/3
Installed:
 yumex.noarch 0:3.0.17-1.el7 
Dependency Installed:
pexpect.noarch 0:2.3-11.el7 python2-pyxdg.noarch 0:0.25-6.el7 
Complete!
[root@localhost philip]#

The steps illustrated for installing yumex on CentOS 7 are fairly similar to those for Fedora 28. Finally, we can launch the yumex utility either at the shell or via the GUI. We'll demonstrate the shell method:

[root@localhost philip]# yumex &
[1] 2884
[root@localhost philip]# Don't run yumex as root it is unsafe (Use --root to force)

From the preceding output, there is a clear indication that we should not run the yumex utility as a root. Instead, we'll run the yumex utility as a non-root user:

root@localhost philip]# exit
exit
[philip@localhost ~]$ yumex &
[1] 2937
[philip@localhost ~]$ 07:48:33 : INFO - Using config file : /home/philip/.config/yumex/yumex.conf
07:48:33 : INFO - Using config file : /home/philip/.config/yumex/yumex.conf
(<class 'dbus.exceptions.DBusException'>, DBusException('Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.115" (uid=1000 pid=2937 comm="/usr/bin/python -tt /usr/bin/yumex ") interface="(unset)" member="GetDevices" error name="(unset)" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.8" (uid=0 pid=633 comm="/usr/sbin/NetworkManager --no-daemon ")',), <traceback object at 0x2ac5ef0>)
(<class 'dbus.exceptions.DBusException'>, DBusException('Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.115" (uid=1000 pid=2937 comm="/usr/bin/python -tt /usr/bin/yumex ") interface="(unset)" member="GetDevices" error name="(unset)" requested_reply="0" destination=":1.8" (uid=0 pid=633 comm="/usr/sbin/NetworkManager --no-daemon ")',), <traceback object at 0x2ac6ef0>)

Once we run the preceding commands, we get the following screen:

Ironically, we're being prompted for the root password—yes, it may seem confusing for some, but not us. This is because we started the yumex utility as a non-root user. For the yumex utility to run, we need root privileges. This is because it manages packages. A non-root user is unable to manage packages by default. So, we'll authenticate and then we will be greeted with the nifty yumex utility:

We notice right off the bat that we have a nice user-friendly GUI with which we can work. There is a menu bar at the top and a search field for finding a particular package. We simply type the name of a package, for instance:

Awesome! We get a nice description for a given package, we can select the checkbox and then click Apply, and the package will be installed.