Starting ...

I am starting to play with Centos 5.5 again this month.

Starting from 1 NOV 2010,

I downloaded CentOS-5.5-x86_64-netinstall.iso

then created a bootable USB drive, using Universal USB Installer

It cannot see iso files on FAT32 partition : (

so I have to chose HTTP install, from this server.

I selected these packages: Desktop+Server+Virtualisation

It took about 30 minutes.

I did not read *carefully* when it asked to install grub (boot loader).

So it was installed to the USB drive.

The result is that I can boot to Centos if the USB drive is plugged in.

: (

Try to fix by following http://www.sorgonet.com/linux/grubrestore/

root (hd0,1)

setup (hd0)

quit

But it does not work.

Finally I have to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst

I am not sure but I think just change

hd1 to hd0 in the file.

# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that

# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.

# root (hd1,8)

# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00

# initrd /initrd-version.img

#boot=/dev/sdb

default=2

timeout=5

splashimage=(hd0,8)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

hiddenmenu

title CentOS (2.6.18-194.17.4.el5xen)

root (hd0,8)

kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-194.17.4.el5

module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.17.4.el5xen ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00

rhgb quiet

module /initrd-2.6.18-194.17.4.el5xen.img

title CentOS (2.6.18-194.el5xen)

root (hd0,8)

kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-194.el5

module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.el5xen ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb

quiet

module /initrd-2.6.18-194.el5xen.img

title Other

rootnoverify (hd0,0)

chainloader +1

I do not know why, but I have to activate the network card on the first couple of times that it booted.

I can get http server to work, but not Python CGI.

Then I tried installing mercurial.

cannot use: yum install mercurial

The first time was older version - 1.3.1-3.el5

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

then a newer one - 1.6.4

http://packages.sw.be/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.5.1-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

not sure if this site is safe :)

After messing it a little bit, I found that there is a configuration management software

http://docs.puppetlabs.com

can use: yum install puppet

But I do not think I have a time to learn and use it.

So I found etckeeper which can use mercurial for its vcs.

- Version Control for Linux Configuration (/etc) with etckeeper

- How to setup etckeeper with Mercurial in Ubuntu?

edit /etc/etckeeper/etckeeper.conf

HG_COMMIT_OPTIONS=" -u etckeeper@a.com"

cd /etc

sudo etckeeper init

sudo etckeeper commit "Initial import"

NOTE: The information here may not be accurate.

That is why I just re-installed yesterday.

Please continue on the next post