Hello,

I'm trying to determine which DNF package is the correct choice for AIX: dnf.ppc or dnf.noarch. Could anyone provide guidance on this? Any insights or experiences you can share would be greatly appreciated.

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root:/# dnf update
Last metadata expiration check: 0:11:43 ago on Wed Apr 15 08:10:01 CST 2026.
Error:
 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: dnf
(try to add '--allowerasing' to command line to replace conflicting packages or '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages or '--setopt=optional_metadata_types=filelists' to load additional filelists metadata)

root:/# dnf list dnf
Last metadata expiration check: 0:11:48 ago on Wed Apr 15 08:10:01 CST 2026.
Installed Packages
dnf.noarch                     4.23.0-32_2                         @System
Available Packages
dnf.ppc                           4.2.17-32_53                       AIX_Toolbox_72

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Thank you in advance for your help!

Hi there,
Here is what I have on a working AIX 7.3 TL4 config :

#dnf --version
4.23.0
  Installed: dnf-0:4.23.0-64_50.ppc at Wed Dec 10 17:25:39 CET 2025
  Built    :  at Wed Nov  5 09:07:37 CET 2025

#dnf list dnf
Last metadata expiration check: 1 day, 23:41:45 ago on Mon Apr 13 09:12:35 CEST 2026.
Installed Packages
dnf.ppc                                                              4.23.0-64_50                                                               @AIX_Toolbox_73

#rpm -qa dnf
dnf-4.23.0-64_50.ppc

#dnf repolist
repo id                                                                    repo name
AIX_Toolbox                                                                AIX generic repository
AIX_Toolbox_73                                                             AIX 7.3 specific repository
AIX_Toolbox_noarch                                                         AIX noarch repository

#dnf list dnf
Last metadata expiration check: 1 day, 23:42:07 ago on Mon Apr 13 09:12:35 CEST 2026.
Installed Packages
dnf.ppc                                                              4.23.0-64_50                                                               @AIX_Toolbox_73

Hope this helps.

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Sylvain Delabarre
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you want dnf.ppc.

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Larry Hotchkiss
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This isn't related to DNF or AIX, per se, it's just the way RPM packages software for multiple architectures.

Things that require a particular CPU architecture are in RPMs that are labelled as such, other bits like manual pages, other documentation, and possibly configuration elements, will be in a separate package -- which could be shared by several architecture-specific packages.

Also, if you are trying to install DNF on AIX, you should be using the DNF installation tarball, which contains the RPMs to get started and a shell script to set everything up for you.

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--
Stephen Ulmer
Enterprise Architect
Pellera Technologies
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You can definitely find further help here ...

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[Sylvain] [Delabarre] [Power SRE] [IBM France]
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