首先，rhel5系统安装的时候其实已经有yum了，只是因为如果用官方的网站更新的话除非你是用钱买的rhel5.否则它会提示注册之类的。所以只要把yum的更新地址改成开源的就行了。

        在root用户下

       $ vi  /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel-debuginfo.repo

        将里面的内容修改为

[base]
name=CentOS-5 - Base
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=$releasever5&arch=$basearch&
repo=os
#baseurl=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/$releasever/os/$basearch/
baseurl=http://ftp.sjtu.edu.cn/centos/5/os/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos5
#released updates
[update]
name=CentOS-5 - Updates
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=4&arch=$basearch&repo=updates
baseurl=http://ftp.sjtu.edu.cn/centos/5/updates/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos5
#packages used/produced in the build but not released
[addons]
name=CentOS-5 - Addons
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=4&arch=$basearch&repo=addons
baseurl=http://ftp.sjtu.edu.cn/centos/5/addons/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos5
#additional packages that may be useful
[extras]
name=CentOS-5 - Extras
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=4&arch=$basearch&repo=extras
baseurl=http://ftp.sjtu.edu.cn/centos/5/extras/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos5
#additional packages that extend functionality of existing packages
[centosplus]
name=CentOS-5 - Plus
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=4&arch=$basearch&repo=centosplus
baseurl=http://ftp.sjtu.edu.cn/centos/5/centosplus/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
enabled=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos5
#contrib - packages by Centos Users
[contrib]
name=CentOS-5 - Contrib
#mirrorlist=http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=4&arch=$basearch&repo=contrib
baseurl=http://ftp.sjtu.edu.cn/centos/5/contrib/$basearch/
gpgcheck=0
enabled=0
gpgkey=http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos5
# vi dag.repo
[dag]
name=Dag RPM Repository for RHEL5
baseurl=http://ftp.riken.jp/Linux/dag/redhat/el5/en/$basearch/dag/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=http://ftp.riken.jp/Linux/dag/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt

        保存后退出，就可以使用yum了。

        网上还有其他的代码，如果使用yum时出现 GPG key retrieval failed: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404: Not Found 报这个错误时，修改repo   gpgcheck=0即可。