On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 9:49 AM, Sam Drinkard <sam at wa4phy.net> wrote: > Well to start, I'm not that new to CentOS, but I've never used yum except to > keep things up to date, but after reading a lot of articles, I started > adding software I'd never used before, and unfortunately, the most up to > date versions came from repositories which I thought were all the same. I > never realized there were multiple sources where bits could be obtained, yet > of different versions. That's my fault. Prior to migrating to Linux, I'd > been a BSD person, and with BSD, you had one source of software, and you > didn't have to worry about different versions from different sources, as > everything was located within a central source. Suggest that you install and configure the yum-plugin-priorities plug in yum install yum-plugin-priorities <http://wiki.centos.org/PackageManagement/Yum/Priorities> and read up on Yum Repositories <http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories?action=show&redirect=Repositories> > My current version is 4.6, and it most likely where I'll stay for some time, > as the software I use has most likely not been tested or rebuilt for later > versions, but I'm behind on the weather software itself. The server at my > co-lo site has only 512m memory, and the server here at my house has 2G, so > I don't think I need the huge-mem kernel for the downtown location, nor here > for that matter. Essentially, I only use the stock kernel, whatever version > happens to be current, and even with that said, I don't reboot every time a > kernel comes out IMHO, you need to keep your server up to date, for security reasons, so that it is your server and not someone elses server that you are paying for. If you do not reboot after updating the kernel, I don't think you are running the new kernel and I don't think you are getting whatever additional security is available in the new kernel. > because of a problem with remote reboots which fails most > of the time, and it's difficult to get into the co-lo site, and the ISP does > not keep personnel at the building all the time. Only when someone needs to > get in, or has a problem will they send someone downtown. PITA. Suggest you look for another colo site or get a Dedicated Box somewhere where the Remote Reboots work properly. Not being able to get to your box, when you need to, is not a good thing. Bad service on the part of your ISP. > Based on my past 3 years of running CentOS, I'll admit I'm not nearly as up > to speed with various aspects of it and a lot of the tools available. Only > in the past few days did I realize within the various repo files, were they > subdivided into the various areas by name. To make a long story short, I'd > just like to be able to keep up essentially the base software on the > server(s) and not have to worry about getting files mixed up like I was told > by numbers of folks. Just did not sink in from previous messages stating > the same thing. At any rate, I did manage to get some stuff fixed > yesterday, but yum is still pulling in some of the kernel stuff that I don't > need or want, and that's the basis for my request for help. Sam: I suggest you do some reading on the Wiki at centos.org and begin to understand what you can do, to make your Server more secure: (a) not allowing root logins (b) not using passwords (using keys) and (c) a ton of other things. Keeping your server up to date and as secure as possible takes time but is worth the investment of your time. 73, Lanny