📖 ~1 min read
Table of contents
Symptom & Impact
dnf or yum on AIX Toolbox fails with ‘Cannot retrieve repository metadata’.
Environment & Reproduction
AIX 7.3 with AIX Toolbox dnf/yum and rotating IBM repo URLs.
Root Cause Analysis
Stale /opt/freeware/etc/yum cache or expired SSL cert on mirror.
Quick Triage
Run dnf clean all and dnf repolist -v on the AIX host.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis
Use dnf –setopt=sslverify=false repolist to isolate TLS issues.

Solution – Primary Fix
Update /opt/freeware/etc/yum/repos.d to latest IBM AIX Toolbox URLs.
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Solution – Alternative Approaches
Install rpms manually with rpm -Uvh from a known-good mirror.
Verification & Acceptance Criteria
dnf install completes and dnf check-update returns updates.
Rollback Plan
Restore previous repo file from .rpmsave to roll back.
Prevention & Hardening
Mirror Toolbox internally and pin repo URLs.
Related Errors & Cross-Refs
yum metadata errors, GPG key import failures.
Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for aix-7.1.
View all aix-7.1 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →
Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.
References & Further Reading
IBM AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications site.
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