Yellow Dog Linux 7 comes prepackaged with a few essential applications on the disc, but there are many more available on YDL.net. This guide will show you how to connect to YDL.net in a few simple steps using your YDL.net account credentials. If you have not received your credentials or they have been misplaced, please contact your Fixstars account representative.

All that is required to connect to YDL.net is to modify a couple of lines in a file. To do this simply:

1. Log in as root

2. Use a text editor to open /etc/yum.repos.d/YDL-Base.repo

3. The contents are broken up into three sections – base, updates, extras.

   In each section there is a line beginning with baseurl followed by a url with the form

   http://username:password@YDL.net/power7/releases/7/os/

   To enable access to YDL.net simply replace the username and password with your account credentials in each section and save your changes.

To test whether you can connect to YDL.net you can run the command:

yum repolist -v

If everything has gone well then you should see that the Yellow Dog Linux 7 - Base location has a few thousand packages available. At the time of writing this guide there are no packages in the Extras and Updates repository locations.

Now that you are connected to YDL.net you have access to a wide array of packages so that you can customize your Yellow Dog 7 install to meet the needs of your unique workflow. If you wish to take full advantage of the 7r2 then you should consider installing the IBM Advance Toolchain, a guide for which can be found here.