Favors ext4 fs type. When running X, the ALT-F1 screen (not ALT-F7) is the graphical terminal. Looks pretty easy to run own repository. See http://yum.baseurl.org/wiki/RepoTools now 'dnf' useradd creates home directories of privs 0700. systemctl seems an alternative to 'service' to control services. Remove NetworkManager # Check if "network" service running and stop it if so with: service network stop service NetworkManager stop chkconfig NetworkManager off chkconfig --list NetworkManager # If "network" service weren't enabled then enable: chkconfig --list network chkconfig network on rm /lib/udev/rules.d/??-persistent-net-generator.rules # Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* start_udev service network start dnf remove NetworkManager Look at all of the system-config-* programs Do minimal install and select just the KDE and X groups (maybe Print, Perl, some others?) (do not need Fonts nor CentOS Desktop System) STUFF TO REMOVE NetworkManager, per above service postfix stop chkconfig postfix off dnf remove postfix AFTER INSTALL EXIM!!! Don't use "-y" switch, to ensure it doesn't remove other packages due to dependencies. Disable iptables if you don't want it. CAREFUL if attempt to install because may remove tons of other stuff. May want to stop it and "chkconfig --del iptables" dnf -y remove iptables-ipv6 # ipv6 pkg doesn't have the dependencies. STUFF TO INSTALL yum-plugin-priorities (supports "priority=N" settings, 1-99, dflt. and lowest 99) STUPIDLY displays only EXPLICIT (and possibly commented-out) priorities (regardless of disabled): [TODO: Rewrite this] sed -n -e "/^\[/h; /priority *=/{ G; s/\n/ /; s/ity=/ity = /; p }" /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo | sort -k3n AND it gives no indication whether enabled or not. If HEADLESS then + xorg-x11-apps parted zip unzip bind-utils gvim (vim-enhanced for non-graphical) rsync git exim pidgin ntfs-3g google-chrome-stable (need google-chrome repos) google-talklpugin (need google-talk repos) vlc (yum priorities critical; uncertain whether epel exclude necessary) ffmpeg gimp inkscape btrfs-progs (think installed by default) nfs-utils (for NFS client) skype Can't get working with CentOS as of Sun Dec 16 13:13:30 EST 2012 expect (contains mkpasswd) TODO: Try yumex Yum (graphical) Extender. SEE IF IT SUPPORTS Priorities. yumex not available in default reposes. CONVERT /home and /local to ext4 or btrfs DNF/YUM SETUP yum is being replaced with dnf. GOTCHA: There is no CLI to update the config files until Centos 9. Edit it manually. The --disablerepo=x and --enablerepo=y only apply to the current command/action and is not persisted. compare "dnf repolist" to grep -E '^[[|enabled' *.repo Must use "repoquery" to list files in a package: repoquery -l pkgname Use "-y" switch usually. Use wildcards to list installed or available packages: dnf list '*pkgsubstr*' /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo are just like /etc/zypp/repos.d/*.repo. ** After editing /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo, always run: dnf clean all ** (Could then do "dnf check", but that's pretty slow) ** If copy from another host, check keys in /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/ also. ** Default value for "enabled" is 1! (Not documented!) Only base, update, extras on by dflt. [For some reason [addons] not configged at all but mentioned as a default in all docs]. Give "base" and "update" priorities very high priority RECOMMENDATION: priority=1 enabled=1: [base], [addons], [updates], [extras] (what the hell is [addons]?) I don't but if use centosplus and contrib then: priority=1 enabled=1: [centosplus] priority=2 enabled=1: [contrib] priority=>10 enabled=1: Others... MY RECOMMENDATION priority=10 enabled=1: [updates] priority=20 enabled=1: [base] priority=30 enabled=1: [extras] priority=50 enabled=1: [rpmforge] # DAG # priority=80 enabled=1: [epel] No! Thought would give "genius", but no. If you want resources from epel or any other repo, add the repo then go into the *.repo file set enabled=0. (Just re-enable whenever you want to use it). ADD REPOSITORIES. Described at http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories dnf repolist dnf erase pkg N.b.: Probably best to "dnf install path.rpm" rather than "rpm... path.rpm". + Consider elrepo if need extra hardware or drivor support. See http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories + CONSIDER EPEL repos via rpm with "dnf install ....rpm": http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/fedora-epel/6/i386/repoview/epel-release.html This gives access to yumex, but may be incompatible with DAG. + google-chrome.repo and google-talk per http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/GoogleYumRepos and my own *.repo file. + RPMForge (aka DAG) with lower priority http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/RPMForge#head-f0c3ecee3dbb407e4eed79a56ec0ae92d1398e01 + EPEL at VERY LOW PRIORITY. Just install the EL5 rpm then set the priority. Great: dnf provides ... # which package provides a feature or file e.g.: dnf provides '*/bin/genius' PLAIN dnf update: dnf -y update INSTALLATION PROCEDURE For VM installation (always) change VM's CMOS boot settings to give CDROM boot priority, and to retry boots when OS-booter not found. http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2011/centos-6-netinstall-network-installation/ Use the net installer image. Why waste time installing obsolete RPMs? Install source URL ends with: ...//os/x86_64 Test the installation media only once. After that, Skip that step. Basic Storage Devices On the "Please name this computer" screen, CLICK THE Configure Network btn! Use ext4 for /boot. (Default /boot size is too big). Installer can not format btrfs, so use ext4. Can't even mount reiserfs. On first software selection screen, leave the default of "Minimal" but check the "Customize now" checkbox. SW Groups. Select just Desktops / X Window System. If not headless then also Desktops / KDE Desktop AFTER running, install dnf groupinstall Base # group names case insensitive dnf groupinstall 'Perl Support' dnf groupinstall 'Printing client' No readily installable ispell, but has hunspell, which is just as good. No readily installable genius, but has the poor substitute "bc -l". system-config-network modifies the network scripts, but doesn't modify /etc/hosts GATEWAY in /etc/sysconfig/network (changes GATEWAY in the interface file) DOMAIN in interface file It does update HWADDR in the interface file. Template VM centos-base. Root password: r00tt00t 8 GiB disk Everything takes up 1.8 GB. Parted: 1 1049kB 263MB 262MB primary ext4 boot 2 263MB 4558MB 4295MB primary linux-swap(v1) 3 4558MB 8590MB 4032MB primary ext4 Yes, mixing repos can create huge dependency deadlocks for you, so you must thread carefully. What I have found works best for me is to install them, but to leave them disabled: enabled=0 in /etc/yum.repos.d/.repo .. Then when I must use them, I would bring them in like so: dnf --enablerepo=epel,rpmforge-extras list package-name dnf --enablerepo=rpmforge install package-name to update resolv.conf when using dhsclient, add /etc/sysconfig/network-scrips/ifcfg-X entry like: DOMAIN="domain.com sub.domain.com" N.b. if using cloud-init this file gets regenerated upon boot. I have tried adding resolv_conf section to /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg but that didn't work. I don't know if it was editing file or running "cloud-init init" but something apparently re-ran one-time stuff and re-wrote ~root/.ssh/authorized_keys dnf general dnf list [installed] '*pkgwildcard*' | grep... dnf grouplist These dnf groups look good: Console Internet Tools, Development Tools dnf repolist dnf erase pkg repoquery to list files in a package: repoquery -l pkgname dnf -y install pkgs... dnf info pkgs... the cronie job runs with name "crond" instead of "cronie". ====================== Centos 9 Provided repo files now all have enabled= settings crt repos is for C and C++ and packaging. Beware some authorities claim it's a requirement for some EPEL stuff. dnf replaces yum it has new command to write *.repo files: dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb