[CentOS] CentOS for non-tech user

[Les Mikesell]

Niki Kovacs wrote:
> Les Mikesell a écrit :
> 
>> Can the install script be simplified to rpm installs of the http urls to the yum 
>> repo release files followed by yum installs of a list of packages?  And if so, 
>> can someone publish that script?
>>
> 
> Not really. Before discovering CentOS (around 2006), I've been a 
> die-hard Slackware user, so my two install CDs are a bit like a set of 
> two Slackware CDs. Which means, a loose set of directories with stuff in 
> them, plus scripts to install them. For example, directories like x11/, 
> nvidia/, ati/ and compiz/, with stuff in them, which I install only if 
> needed. As for the configuration, I do everything (X11, network, ...) by 
> hand, using Vi.
> 
> Here's an example. I have a directory java/, with the latest java from 
> sun.com, plus the following script:
> 
> #!/bin/bash
> #
> CWD=`pwd`
> cp jre-6u14-linux-i586.bin /opt
> chmod +c /opt/jre-6u14-linux-i586.bin
> {
>    cd /opt
>    rm -rf jre1.6.0_14
>    rm -f /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so
>    sh jre-6u14-linux-i586.bin
>    rm -f jre-6u14-linux-i586.bin
> }
> ln -s /opt/jre1.6.0_14/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so \
>    /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/
> cat > /etc/profile.d/java.sh << EOF
> export J2RE_HOME=/opt/jre1.6.0_14
> export PATH=$J2RE_HOME/bin:$PATH
> EOF
> chmod +x /etc/profile.d/java.sh
> source /etc/profile.d/java.sh
> alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jre1.6.0_14/bin/java 2
> alternatives --config java
> 
> Or, other example, the w32codecs/ directory with the following script:
> 
> #!/bin/bash
> #
> # codecs-install.sh
> 
> CWD=`pwd`
> 
> rm -rf /usr/lib/codecs
> rm -rf /usr/lib/win32
> 
> tar xjf $CWD/all-20071007.tar.bz2 -C /usr/lib
> {
>    cd /usr/lib
>    mv all-20071007 codecs
>    ln -s codecs win32
> }
> 
> This logic applies pretty much to everything. But it's not really an 
> installer.
> 
> Of course, it *could* be possible to publish some more user-friendly set 
> of install CDs, but this would be a hell of a lot of work, and you'd end 
> up with something like Yellowdog Linux (which is based on CentOS).

But that leaves you in charge of maintaining and updating every piece you 
install or leaving the systems in a lurch if you don't and there are subsequent 
security/bug fixes.  The whole point of having an enterprise-type long-life 
distribution is that you don't have to do that. If there is a well maintained 
3rd party repo that has the components you need packaged for yum it would be 
much better to take advantage of it.   Sun java used to be something of a 
special case because few sites were willing to host a copy packaged to 
accommodate the RH-style wierdness (I generally used the k12ltsp distro based on 
Centos specifically for this) but now that openjdk is included in 5.3 and in 
epel it is not so much of an issue.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com