Re: [ldm-users] Initial thoughts on CentOS 5.2

I just burned the 5.2 DVD yesterday and am getting ready to do the install on 
what will become our new PDI ingestor boxes.  Thanks for the heads up on some 
of the issues.




-----Original Message-----
From: ldm-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Gilbert Sebenste
Sent: Tue 2/3/2009 7:05 PM
To: ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ldm-users] Initial thoughts on CentOS 5.2
 
Hello all,

All of my servers are now on CentOS 5.2, including my NOAAport server.
For those who have used it or are thinking of getting it, here's what I 
think about it so far.

Installation: Centos 5.2 does NOT like some Viewsonic monitors for the 
graphical install. Once you got past the "Welcome to CentOS" 
page and it started X windows, I got an "Out of range" message 
on my monitor. Installing in text mode is much slower if you select 
packages you want, like I do. On one machine, it was the only way I could 
do it. On 2 others exhibiting the problem, I used a Dell monitor from a 
3rd server. This was a problem in Fedora 6/7 that apparently wasn't fixed
for 5.2. I can understand it being there in 5.0, but 5.2...swat that bug!
Especially with a known fix out.

Second issue I had was not finding some packages I needed. After some 
pointing from a few of you and some old-fashioned Google hunting, I found 
the remainder of the packages I needed. That was frustrating. But, after 
the first test server got the installation completed and tweaked, the rest 
went pretty fast.

Gnome had a problem where autologin had an error. I log my office servers 
into LDM automagically after a boot; it would stop with an error that said 
the .dmrc file must be set to file permission 644. But that didn't fix 
it; setting the permissions variable did. Finally, on one of the 
servers, the keyboard simply stopped working. After finding the 
issue on the Ubuntu forums, removing the .gconf directory brought it back, 
and all was well. These were known issues in Fedora 6/7; wish they had 
gotten them fixed for CentOS.

Now, as for the OS itself: it seems to run fine. LDM, McIDAS and WXP all 
ran fine, although I had to recompile LDM because Centos still uses 
syslog, while Fedora 8 and later uses rsyslog. Need to try GEMPAK, haven't 
had the opportunity yet.

What about the packages? I was pleasantly surprised. I enabled the
updates-testing repository, and doing a large "yum update", I saw I had 
Apache 2.2.8, Postfix 2.3.3-2, and Firefox 3.0.5. My previous postfix 
config files were somewhat incompatible, but after a few tweaks, it was 
fine. I really like Postfix over Sendmail; UNIDATA sold me on it when they 
flipped their mailing lists over to it. Sometimes email had long delays, 
but now, I usually get any emails within a minute after its sent. Maybe 
exim is a bit faster, never tried it, and from what I've read, never want 
to...but Postfix is still screaming fast for me.

Anyway, everything has been switched over to Centos 5.2 here. 
Yesterday evening, at about 11 PM when I put the final touches on this 
server, I opened up a side drawer and saw DVD's for Fedora 8, 9, 10. I 
opened up the DVD cases and envelopes, took out the media, and after a 
pause, I threw them in the trash. 10 years with Redhat/Fedora, gone. OK, 
I know I am still with them, technically. And I'll have Fedora 8 
back...when CentOS 6 comes out...in first quarter 2010. :-) But still, 
Fedora was really making things less flexible...no root login from GDM 
anymore, no SMTP connection allow to let WXP make its images...bad. If I 
wanted an OS that was inflexible, I'd choose Windows. I don't know what 
I'll do 2 or 3 years down the road when that garbage hits CentOS.

All that having been said, so far, everything is up and working that I had 
before. However, to make that happen, I had to do some serious hunting to 
get some packages I needed (like the latest versions of Icecast and 
Darkice). I don't know when they update their individual packages when a 
problem is found, but that will come in time. Now, back to work.

Oh, do I recommend Centos? Well, it's Fedora, isn't it? What's not to 
like? :-)

*******************************************************************************
Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
(My opinions only!)                                                  ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University                      ****
E-mail: sebenste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                                  ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
*******************************************************************************
_______________________________________________
ldm-users mailing list
ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
For list information or to unsubscribe,  visit: 
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailing_lists/ 

  • 2009 messages navigation, sorted by:
    1. Thread
    2. Subject
    3. Author
    4. Date
    5. ↑ Table Of Contents
  • Search the ldm-users archives: