All posts by David Lehman

CentOS, Linux

Use Yum to List All of the Packages in a Single Repository

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First, list all of your available repositories, and get the repository IDs

# yum repolist
repo id         repo name                                              status
base            CentOS-6 - Base                                            6,367
epel           Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - x86_64         10,142+82
extras          CentOS-6 - Extras                                             14
updates         CentOS-6 - Updates                                           287
repolist: 16,810

To see which packages are just in the “base” repository:

# yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="base" list available
Available Packages
389-ds-base.x86_64                        1.2.11.15-29.el6                  base
389-ds-base-devel.i686                    1.2.11.15-29.el6                  base
389-ds-base-devel.x86_64                  1.2.11.15-29.el6                  base
389-ds-base-libs.i686                     1.2.11.15-29.el6                  base
389-ds-base-libs.x86_64                   1.2.11.15-29.el6                  base
ConsoleKit-devel.i686                     0.4.1-3.el6                       base
ConsoleKit-devel.x86_64                   0.4.1-3.el6                       base
ConsoleKit-docs.x86_64                    0.4.1-3.el6                       base
ConsoleKit-libs.i686                      0.4.1-3.el6                       base
ConsoleKit-x11.x86_64                     0.4.1-3.el6                       base
DeviceKit-power.i686                      014-3.el6                         base
DeviceKit-power.x86_64                    014-3.el6                         base
DeviceKit-power-devel.i686                014-3.el6                         base
DeviceKit-power-devel.x86_64              014-3.el6                         base
DeviceKit-power-devel-docs.noarch         014-3.el6                         base
ElectricFence.i686                        2.2.2-28.el6                      base
ElectricFence.x86_64                      2.2.2-28.el6                      base
GConf2.i686                               2.28.0-6.el6                      base
GConf2.x86_64                             2.28.0-6.el6                      base
GConf2-devel.i686                         2.28.0-6.el6                      base
GConf2-devel.x86_64                       2.28.0-6.el6                      base
GConf2-gtk.x86_64                         2.28.0-6.el6                      base
ImageMagick.i686                          6.5.4.7-6.el6_2                   base
ImageMagick.x86_64                        6.5.4.7-6.el6_2                   base
ImageMagick-c++.i686                      6.5.4.7-6.el6_2                   base
ImageMagick-c++.x86_64                    6.5.4.7-6.el6_2                   base
ImageMagick-c++-devel.i686                6.5.4.7-6.el6_2                   base
ImageMagick-c++-devel.x86_64              6.5.4.7-6.el6_2                   base
...

My System Configuration

  • CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit

References

iTunes, Windows, Windows 7, Windows XP

Migrate iTunes from Windows XP to Windows 7

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Prepare the source Windows XP system:

  • In iTunes, Sync your iPod / iPhone / iPad as you normally would.
  • Go to File > Library > Organize Library > Check to organize library and to consolidate files.
  • Deauthorize your computer from iTunes by going to Store > Deauthorize This Computer
  • Quit iTunes

Prepare the destination Windows 7 system:

  • Install iTunes
  • In Explorer, go to Tools > Folder Options > View > Show hidden files, folders, and drives > press OK
  • Quit iTunes in case you opened it

Transfer files from the source Windows XP system to the destination Windows 7 system:

  • Copy “C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes” to “C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes“
  • Copy “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes” to “C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes“
  • Copy “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes” to “C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes“

Note: This does not transfer over device backups.
On the destination Windows 7 system:

  • Open iTunes and verify all of your data is there
  • Authorize your computer to iTunes by going to Store > Authorize This Computer
  • Sync your iPod / iPhone / iPad as you normally would.

My System Configuration

  • Windows XP SP3
  • Windows 7 Professional SP1
  • iTunes 11.1.3.8

References

Windows, Windows 7

Installing Windows 7 from Scratch Using the Upgrade CD

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You should be able to install Windows 7 on a bare PC using the upgrade CD without any issue. That is, without having to first install an older version of Windows, and then upgrade. This arguably provides a cleaner install. However, a problem arises when you try to activate your Windows installation:

  1. Open Windows Activation by clicking the Start button, right-clicking Computer, clicking Properties, and then clicking Activate Windows now.‌
  2. If Windows detects an Internet connection, click Activate Windows online now. Administrator permission required. If you’re prompted for an administrator password, type the password.
  3. Type your Windows 7 product key when prompted, click Next, and then follow the instructions.

You should receive the activation error code 0xC004F061: “The Software Licensing Service determined that this specified product key can only be used for upgrade, not for clean installations.”

To resolve this, you must edit the Windows registry. Open up the start menu and type “regedit” into the search field, followed by enter. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/ (or click Edit then Find and type “MediaBootInstall” into the search field, and press enter). Once found, double-click MediaBootInstall and change the “1” to a “0“. Click Ok and exit the Registry Editor.
Now you must “Re-Arm” the Windows activation sequence. First, you must open a command prompt as an administrator. To do this, open up the start menu and type “cmd” but instead of just pressing enter, you need to press “Ctrl” + “Shift” + “Enter” in order for it to run as an administrator. Alternatively, click the start menu, right-click on the command prompt application, and selecting Run as administrator.
From the command prompt, type “slmgr /rearm” and press enter. Then type “exit” and press enter. Then reboot.
Then activate Windows by performing the steps shown above again. This time it should work.

My System Configuration

  • Windows 7 Professional x86 64-bit

References

CentOS, CentOS 6, Linux

Adding the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) Repository to CentOS 6

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The Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repository provides rebuilds of Fedora packages for EL5 and EL6. This is not a CentOS repository. It is a Fedora project. This repository is suppose to complement the packages found in the base repository by adding additional, useful applications. A list of the additional packages may be found on the project’s web page.
According to the EPEL web site, “EPEL is purely a complementary add-on repository and does not replace packages in RHEL or layered products.” It should work along with the base repository without issue. However, there is always the possibility that the same application gets added, or that it doesn’t mix well with other third-party repositories added to your system. Hence, consider using the Yum priorities module.
Install the epel-release package for EL6 to automatically configure and enable this repository on CentOS 6.

# cd /tmp/
# wget http://mirrors.rit.edu/fedora/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
# rpm -Uvh epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
warning: epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID 0608b895: NOKEY
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:epel-release           ########################################### [100%]
# yum makecache
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
epel/metalink                                            |  13 kB     00:00
 * base: mirrors.lga7.us.voxel.net
 * epel: mirrors.servercentral.net
 * extras: mirrors.lga7.us.voxel.net
 * updates: ftpmirror.your.org
base                                                     | 3.7 kB     00:00
base/filelists_db                                        | 5.9 MB     00:01
base/other_db                                            | 2.8 MB     00:00
epel/group_gz                                            | 237 kB     00:00
epel/filelists_db                                        | 8.0 MB     00:02
epel/other_db                                            | 3.4 MB     00:00
epel/updateinfo                                          | 731 kB     00:00
extras                                                   | 3.4 kB     00:00
extras/filelists_db                                      |  11 kB     00:00
extras/prestodelta                                       |  907 B     00:00
extras/other_db                                          | 5.8 kB     00:00
updates                                                  | 3.4 kB     00:00
updates/filelists_db                                     | 649 kB     00:00
updates/prestodelta                                      | 241 kB     00:00
updates/other_db                                         | 107 kB     00:00
Metadata Cache Created

Verify the EPEL repository is enabled:

# yum repolist all
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.nexcess.net
 * epel: ftp.osuosl.org
 * extras: mirror.metrocast.net
 * updates: mirrors.rit.edu
repo id                repo name                                 status
C6.0-base              CentOS-6.0 - Base                         disabled
C6.0-centosplus        CentOS-6.0 - CentOSPlus                   disabled
C6.0-contrib           CentOS-6.0 - Contrib                      disabled
C6.0-extras            CentOS-6.0 - Extras                       disabled
C6.0-updates           CentOS-6.0 - Updates                      disabled
C6.1-base              CentOS-6.1 - Base                         disabled
C6.1-centosplus        CentOS-6.1 - CentOSPlus                   disabled
C6.1-contrib           CentOS-6.1 - Contrib                      disabled
C6.1-extras            CentOS-6.1 - Extras                       disabled
C6.1-updates           CentOS-6.1 - Updates                      disabled
C6.2-base              CentOS-6.2 - Base                         disabled
C6.2-centosplus        CentOS-6.2 - CentOSPlus                   disabled
C6.2-contrib           CentOS-6.2 - Contrib                      disabled
C6.2-extras            CentOS-6.2 - Extras                       disabled
C6.2-updates           CentOS-6.2 - Updates                      disabled
C6.3-base              CentOS-6.3 - Base                         disabled
C6.3-centosplus        CentOS-6.3 - CentOSPlus                   disabled
C6.3-contrib           CentOS-6.3 - Contrib                      disabled
C6.3-extras            CentOS-6.3 - Extras                       disabled
C6.3-updates           CentOS-6.3 - Updates                      disabled
C6.4-base              CentOS-6.4 - Base                         disabled
C6.4-centosplus        CentOS-6.4 - CentOSPlus                   disabled
C6.4-contrib           CentOS-6.4 - Contrib                      disabled
C6.4-extras            CentOS-6.4 - Extras                       disabled
C6.4-updates           CentOS-6.4 - Updates                      disabled
base                   CentOS-6 - Base                           enabled:  6,367
c6-media               CentOS-6 - Media                          disabled
centosplus             CentOS-6 - Plus                           disabled
contrib                CentOS-6 - Contrib                        disabled
debug                  CentOS-6 - Debuginfo                      disabled
epel                   Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - x enabled: 10,215
epel-debuginfo         Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - x disabled
epel-source            Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - x disabled
epel-testing           Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - T disabled
epel-testing-debuginfo Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - T disabled
epel-testing-source    Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - T disabled
extras                 CentOS-6 - Extras                         enabled:     14
updates                CentOS-6 - Updates                        enabled:    286
repolist: 16,882

Optionally, install the Yum priorities plugin. This plugin allows repositories to have different priorities. Packages in a repository with a lower priority can’t be overridden by packages from a repository with a higher priority even if repository has a later version.

# yum install yum-plugin-priorities

Verify that Yum plugins are enabled in /etc/yum.conf:

[main]
plugins=1

Verify that the Yum priorities plugin is enabled in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf:

[main]
enabled = 1

Now add priorities to repositories by adding the line:

priority=N

to a repository entry, where N is an integer from 1 to 99. The default priority for repositories is 99. The repositories with the lowest numerical priority number have the highest priority. Hence, give all of the CentOS base and update repositories the highest possible priority (1). You do not need to modify the EPEL repository configuration files since they will default to the lower priority of 99. Modify /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo to append

priority=1

to every repository definition.
Now check to see if any packages from the EPEL repository were excluded:

# yum repolist all
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.nexcess.net
 * epel: ftp.osuosl.org
 * extras: mirror.metrocast.net
 * updates: mirrors.rit.edu
82 packages excluded due to repository priority protections
repo id                repo name                              status
C6.0-base              CentOS-6.0 - Base                      disabled
C6.0-centosplus        CentOS-6.0 - CentOSPlus                disabled
C6.0-contrib           CentOS-6.0 - Contrib                   disabled
C6.0-extras            CentOS-6.0 - Extras                    disabled
C6.0-updates           CentOS-6.0 - Updates                   disabled
C6.1-base              CentOS-6.1 - Base                      disabled
C6.1-centosplus        CentOS-6.1 - CentOSPlus                disabled
C6.1-contrib           CentOS-6.1 - Contrib                   disabled
C6.1-extras            CentOS-6.1 - Extras                    disabled
C6.1-updates           CentOS-6.1 - Updates                   disabled
C6.2-base              CentOS-6.2 - Base                      disabled
C6.2-centosplus        CentOS-6.2 - CentOSPlus                disabled
C6.2-contrib           CentOS-6.2 - Contrib                   disabled
C6.2-extras            CentOS-6.2 - Extras                    disabled
C6.2-updates           CentOS-6.2 - Updates                   disabled
C6.3-base              CentOS-6.3 - Base                      disabled
C6.3-centosplus        CentOS-6.3 - CentOSPlus                disabled
C6.3-contrib           CentOS-6.3 - Contrib                   disabled
C6.3-extras            CentOS-6.3 - Extras                    disabled
C6.3-updates           CentOS-6.3 - Updates                   disabled
C6.4-base              CentOS-6.4 - Base                      disabled
C6.4-centosplus        CentOS-6.4 - CentOSPlus                disabled
C6.4-contrib           CentOS-6.4 - Contrib                   disabled
C6.4-extras            CentOS-6.4 - Extras                    disabled
C6.4-updates           CentOS-6.4 - Updates                   disabled
base                   CentOS-6 - Base                        enabled:     6,367
c6-media               CentOS-6 - Media                       disabled
centosplus             CentOS-6 - Plus                        disabled
contrib                CentOS-6 - Contrib                     disabled
debug                  CentOS-6 - Debuginfo                   disabled
epel                   Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6  enabled: 10,133+82
epel-debuginfo         Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6  disabled
epel-source            Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6  disabled
epel-testing           Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6  disabled
epel-testing-debuginfo Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6  disabled
epel-testing-source    Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6  disabled
extras                 CentOS-6 - Extras                      enabled:        14
updates                CentOS-6 - Updates                     enabled:       286
repolist: 16,800

This was actually a bit surprising! I was not expecting any packages from EPEL to be excluded because I was not expecting any packages that are in the base repository to also be in the EPEL repository. To determine which packages exist in both repositories, I temporarily disabled the Yum priorities module and did the following:

# yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="base" list available | cut -d" " -f1 | sort > /tmp/base.txt
# yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" list available | cut -d" " -f1 | sort > /tmp/epel.txt
# comm -12 /tmp/base.txt /tmp/epel.txt
a2ps.i686
a2ps.x86_64
emacs-a2ps-el.x86_64
emacs-a2ps.x86_64
febootstrap.x86_64
freerdp-devel.i686
freerdp-devel.x86_64
freerdp-libs.i686
freerdp-libs.x86_64
freerdp-plugins.x86_64
freerdp.x86_64
ht2html.noarch
html2ps.noarch
lzop.x86_64
osutil.x86_64
perl-B-Keywords.noarch
perl-Class-MethodMaker.x86_64
perl-Config-Simple.noarch
perl-Devel-Cycle.noarch
perl-Exception-Class.noarch
perl-File-pushd.noarch
perl-Font-AFM.noarch
perl-HTML-Format.noarch
perl-IO-Tty.x86_64
perl-IPC-Run.noarch
perl-Locale-PO.noarch
perl-MIME-Lite.noarch
perl-MIME-Types.noarch
perl-Module-Find.noarch
perl-Net-SMTP-SSL.noarch
perl-PadWalker.x86_64
perl-Parse-RecDescent.noarch
perl-Perl-Critic.noarch
perl-Pod-Spell.noarch
perl-String-Format.noarch
perl-Syntax-Highlight-Engine-Kate.noarch
perl-Term-ProgressBar.noarch
perl-Test-Memory-Cycle.noarch
perl-Test-Perl-Critic.noarch
perl-Test-Spelling.noarch
perl-UNIVERSAL-can.noarch
perl-UNIVERSAL-isa.noarch
perl-XML-TokeParser.noarch
perl-XML-Writer.noarch
pexpect.noarch
pki-symkey.x86_64
PyPAM.x86_64
python-ipaddr.noarch
python-krbV.x86_64
python-repoze-who-friendlyform.noarch
python-suds.noarch
python-tw-forms.noarch
python-urwid.x86_64
scl-utils-build.x86_64
scons.noarch
snappy-devel.i686
snappy-devel.x86_64
snappy.i686
wordnet-devel.i686
wordnet-devel.x86_64
wordnet.i686
wordnet.x86_64
xerces-c-devel.i686
xerces-c-devel.x86_64
xerces-c-doc.noarch
xerces-c.i686
xerces-c.x86_64
xhtml2ps.noarch

At random, I compared the package “osutil”:

# yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="base" info osutil
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.nexcess.net
Available Packages
Name        : osutil
Arch        : x86_64
Version     : 2.0.1
Release     : 1.el6
Size        : 25 k
Repo        : base
Summary     : Operating System Utilities JNI Package
URL         : http://pki.fedoraproject.org/
License     : GPLv2
Description : The Operating System Utilities Java Native Interface (JNI) package
            : supplies various native operating system operations to Java
            : programs.
# yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="epel" info osutil
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, priorities, security
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * epel: ftp.osuosl.org
Available Packages
Name        : osutil
Arch        : x86_64
Version     : 1.3.1
Release     : 3.el6.1
Size        : 25 k
Repo        : epel
Summary     : Operating System Utilities JNI Package
URL         : http://pki.fedoraproject.org/
License     : GPLv2
Description : The Operating System Utilities Java Native Interface (JNI) package
            : supplies various native operating system operations to Java
            : programs.

Interestingly, this says that this package in EPEL is older than the one in CentOS base. Hence, this package should never get installed anyways. I find the existence of these duplicate packages more interesting than cause for concern. Perhaps these packages are also in EPEL in order to satisfy package dependencies …?

My System Configuration

  • CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit

References

CentOS, CentOS 6, iTunes, Linux, VMware, Windows, Windows 7, Workstation, Workstation 10

VMware Workstation 10 on CentOS 6 Host with Windows 7 Guest Running iTunes

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After installing iTunes on a Windows 7 guest, I would then plug my iPhone into a USB port on my CentOS 6 host. Inside of VMware Workstation 10, I selected the appropriate VM, then from the menu bar I selected VM > Removable Devices > Apple iPhone > Connect (Disconnect from host). This causes VMware to attach this USB device to the Windows guest instead of the CentOS host.
After doing this, I get the following message from VMware: “The Device “Apple iPhone” was not able to connect to its ideal host controller. An attempt will be made to connect this device to the best available host controller. This might result in undefined behavior for this device.”

Go to Start > Devices and Printers. You should see two new devices under the Unspecified section called “Apple Mobile Device USB Driver” and “Apple iPhone”.

Also, if you open up Explorer and go to Computer, you should see your iPhone listed as a Portable Device.

After browsing files on the iPhone within Explorer (using the iPhone as an internal storage device), I get a Windows blue screen including the message “BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER”. The guest machine crashes while the host remains stable.

Alternatively, if I opened iTunes while the iPhone is attached to the Windows guest, iTunes would display the error “iTunes could not connect to the iPhone because an invalid response was received from the device.”

Ultimately, I resolved the majority of my issues by powering off the Windows guest VM, going to VM > Settings > USB Controller >
Change USB Compatibility from USB 1.1 to USB 2.0. Save and restart the VM.
Every once in a while iTunes does not recognize the iPhone. Usually this can be resolved, by removing and re-adding the iPhone or closing and re-opening iTunes. Sometimes by adding the iPhone prior to starting iTunes.
In order for Sync over Wi-Fi to work, the guest Windows VM running iTunes should to have an IP on the same physical network as your iPhone. Power off the guest VM, go to VM > Settings > Network Adapter >
Select “Bridged” instead of “NAT”.

My System Configuration

  • VMware Workstation 10.1
  • Host: CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit
  • Guest: Windows 7 Professional SP1
  • iTunes 11.1.3.8

References

CentOS, CentOS 6, Linux, VMware, VMware Tools, Windows, Windows 7, Workstation, Workstation 10

CentOS Host OS Crashes When Installing VMware Tools on a Guest OS Within VMware Workstation 10

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Installing VMware Tools on a Windows 7 Guest OS in VMware Workstation 10.1 running on a CentOS 6 host always resulted in the host OS crashing.
This appears to be due to a combination of VMware Workstation 10.1 running on CentOS 6 .5 with kernel 2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP x86_64 GNU/Linux. I see these two interesting items on the screen output followed by a call trace.

BUG: scheduling while atomic: vmware/6035/0x000002000
Pid: 6035, comm: vmware Tainted: G D --------- 2.6.32-431.1.2.0.1.el6.x86_64 #1

2013-12-28_vmware-host-crash
To resolve this issue:

# service vmware-workstation-server stop
# service vmware stop
# mv -v /usr/lib/vmware/modules/binary /usr/lib/vmware/modules/binary~orig
# rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/v*.ko
# depmod -a
# yum install make gcc keneral-headers-$(uname -r) kernel-devel
# /usr/bin/vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
# service vmware start
# service vmware-workstation-server start

I could now attempt to install VMware Tools on a Windows 7 Guest OS without the host crashing. However, I now ran into another complication. The VMware Tools install would hang around the point of installing the ThinPrint module. Basically, the VMware Tools install hangs due to cruft left over from previous install attempts. Follow VMware KB Article 1001354 to remove cruft left over from previous VMware Tools installs. Then try reinstalling again.
You do not need to repeat this procedure since the offending modules are being removed in the steps above. During subsequent kernel upgrades, modules will be recompiled automatically.
VMware claims that “this issue should be fixed with the next update (10.0.2), and we will publish a kb article.”
UPDATE: The VMware community appears to agree that this issue is resolved in the Workstation 10.0.2 release.

My System Configuration

  • VMware Workstation 10.1
  • Host: CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit
  • Guest: Windows 7 Professional SP1

References

CentOS, CentOS 6, Linux

Install Additional Common Linux Packages on CentOS 6 Minimal Install

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After performing a base install of CentOS 6 using the minimal install CD, you may find that a lot of commands that you would expect are not there. Do the following to install additional, basic Linux packages that are common to most Linux distributions:

# yum groupinstall "Base"

Run the following in order to see detailed information including a description and which packages it will install.

# yum groupinfo "Base"
Group: Base
 Description: The basic installation of CentOS Linux.
 Mandatory Packages:
   alsa-utils
   at
   authconfig
   bc
   bind-utils
   centos-indexhtml
   crontabs
   cyrus-sasl-plain
   dbus
   ed
   file
   logrotate
   lsof
   man
   ntsysv
   parted
   pciutils
   psacct
   quota
   setserial
   tmpwatch
   traceroute
 Default Packages:
   abrt-addon-ccpp
   abrt-addon-kerneloops
   abrt-addon-python
   abrt-cli
   acpid
   b43-fwcutter
   biosdevname
   blktrace
   bridge-utils
   bzip2
   cpuspeed
   cryptsetup-luks
   dmraid
   dosfstools
   eject
   ethtool
   fprintd-pam
   gnupg2
   hunspell
   hunspell-en
   irqbalance
   kexec-tools
   ledmon
   libaio
   lvm2
   man-pages
   man-pages-overrides
   mdadm
   microcode_ctl
   mlocate
   mtr
   nano
   ntp
   ntpdate
   openssh-clients
   pam_passwdqc
   pcmciautils
   pinfo
   plymouth
   pm-utils
   prelink
   rdate
   readahead
   rfkill
   rng-tools
   rsync
   scl-utils
   setuptool
   smartmontools
   sos
   strace
   sysstat
   system-config-firewall-tui
   system-config-network-tui
   systemtap-runtime
   tcpdump
   tcsh
   time
   unzip
   usbutils
   vconfig
   vim-enhanced
   virt-what
   wget
   which
   wireless-tools
   words
   xz
   yum-plugin-security
   yum-utils
   zip
 Optional Packages:
   PyPAM
   audispd-plugins
   brltty
   cpupowerutils
   device-mapper-persistent-data
   dos2unix
   dumpet
   ecryptfs-utils
   edac-utils
   genisoimage
   gpm
   kabi-yum-plugins
   kernel-doc
   linuxptp
   logwatch
   mkbootdisk
   mtools
   ncurses-term
   nss_db
   oddjob
   pax
   python-dmidecode
   python-volume_key
   rsyslog-gnutls
   rsyslog-gssapi
   rsyslog-relp
   sgpio
   sox
   squashfs-tools
   star
   tboot
   tunctl
   udftools
   unix2dos
   uuidd
   volume_key
   wodim
   x86info
   yum-plugin-aliases
   yum-plugin-changelog
   yum-plugin-downloadonly
   yum-plugin-tmprepo
   yum-plugin-verify
   yum-plugin-versionlock
   yum-presto
   zsh

There are additional package groups that may be useful in order to easily setup a particular service. To see a list of all the installed and available package groups:

# yum grouplist

My System Configuration

  • CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit

References

CentOS, CentOS 6, Linux

Install a Desktop Environment on CentOS 6 Minimal Install

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After performing a base install of CentOS 6 using the minimal install CD, do the following to install a basic GNOME desktop environment:

# yum groupinstall "Desktop" "Desktop Platform" "X Window System" "Fonts"

Run the following on a particular package group in order to see detailed information including a description and which packages it will install.

# yum groupinfo groupname

There are additional package groups if you want something more than a basic desktop environment. For example,

# yum -y groupinstall "General Purpose Desktop"

To see a list of all the installed and available package groups:

# yum grouplist

Once installed, you can start GNOME by running:

$ startx

or

$ /sbin/telinit 5

To have CentOS boot into runlevel 5 “X11” instead of runlevel 3 “Full multiuser mode”, modify the /etc/inittab file to change start up level from

id:3:initdefault:

to

id:5:initdefault:

My System Configuration

  • CentOS 6.5 x86 64-bit

References

WordPress

Expand the Main Content Page on the WordPress Twenty Fourteen Theme

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Updated Procedure: https://www.nowherelan.com/2018/12/26/expand-the-main-content-page-on-the-wordpress-twenty-fourteen-theme/

To expand the width of the main content page when using the WordPress 3.8 Twenty Fourteen theme:

  • Login to WordPress as an administrator
  • Go to Appearance > Widgets
  • Remove all widgets from the Content Sidebar
  • Go to Appearance > Editor > style.css
  • Find the section that says:
.page-content {
 margin: 0 auto;
 max-width: 474px;
}
  • Change it to:
.page-content {
 margin: 0 auto;
 max-width: 990px;
}
  • Click Update File

My System Configuration

  • WordPress 3.8
  • Twenty Fourteen theme 1.0

References