RHEL5.5 Migrate to centos5.5, some RH remnants, questions

[AlanBartlett]

[quote]
> yum repolist all
repolist: 0
[/quote]
Something strange is going on. :-o

See what I obtain (o.k. so it is RHEL 6.0 but the example is still valid) --

[code]
[ajb@Duo2 ~]$ sudo yum repolist all
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit, rhnplugin
repo id repo name status
InstallMedia Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 disabled
elrepo ELRepo.org Community Enterprise Linux Repository - el6 disabled
elrepo-kernel ELRepo.org Community Enterprise Linux Kernel Repository - e6l disabled
elrepo-testing ELRepo.org Community Enterprise Linux Testing Repository - el6 disabled
rhel-x86_64-server-6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6 for 64-bit x86_64) enabled: 2,869+769
rhel-x86_64-server-fastrack-6 RHEL Server FasTrack (v. 6 64-bit x86_64) enabled: 0
rhel-x86_64-server-optional-6 RHEL Server Optional (v. 6 64-bit x86_64) enabled: 1,995+740
rhel-x86_64-server-optional-fastrack-6 RHEL Server Optional FasTrack (v. 6 64-bit x86_64) enabled: 0
rhel-x86_64-server-supplementary-6 RHEL Server Supplementary (v. 6 64-bit x86_64) enabled: 40+13
rpmforge RHEL 6Server - RPMforge.net - dag disabled
rpmforge-extras RHEL 6Server - RPMforge.net - extras disabled
rpmforge-testing RHEL 6Server - RPMforge.net - testing disabled
repolist: 4,904
[/code]
To aid [b]toracat[/b] in helping you, please post the output returned by --

[code]
[b]ls -l /etc/yum.repos.d/
ls -l /etc/yum/
rpm -q centos-release[/b]
[/code]

[dunwell]

Howdy Alan, thanks for helping out. Alan and toracat, Look at these - Yow! :-?

[code]887 dunwellguitar3:/etc/init.d
> ls -l /etc/yum.repos.d/
total 0
888 dunwellguitar3:/etc/init.d
> ls -l /etc/yum/
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 17 09:21 pluginconf.d/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 490 Jan 18 2008 yum-updatesd.conf
889 dunwellguitar3:/etc/init.d
> rpm -q centos-release
package centos-release is not installed
[/code]
It is looking like maybe my migration to centos didn't even happen, or only parts of it happened(???). Should I be thinking about reverting to my RHEL5 safety disk, making a new dd copy from that and trying it all again? Or do you think there is some way to recover from the state we are in such as just re-running all the rpm installs as denoted in the original migration docs I mentioned way at the start?

[AlanBartlett]

Hmm, that's is what I thought we might see. :-?

There's no need to revert anything, we just need to get the [i]centos-release[/i] package installed on your system. Please just try the following --

[code]
If 32-bit:
[b]rpm -ivh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/centos-release-5-5.el5.centos.i386.rpm[/b]

If 64-bit:
[b]rpm -ivh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/x86_64/CentOS/centos-release-5-5.el5.centos.x86_64.rpm[/b]
[/code]
Once that [b]is[/b] installed you will then have a [i]CentOS[/i] system. ;-)

[dunwell]

[quote]
AlanBartlett wrote:
Hmm, that's is what I thought we might see. :-?

There's no need to revert anything, we just need to get the [i]centos-release[/i] package installed on your system. Please just try the following --

[code]
If 32-bit:
[b]rpm -ivh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/centos-release-5-5.el5.centos.i386.rpm[/b]

If 64-bit:
[b]rpm -ivh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/x86_64/CentOS/centos-release-5-5.el5.centos.x86_64.rpm[/b]
[/code]
Once that [b]is[/b] installed you will then have a [i]CentOS[/i] system. ;-)[/quote]

Huzzah!!! Perhaps even Zounds!
I'm 32 bit so the following. Note it needed the release notes in first. Then it was happy to run yum and install the packages that were previously not found.

[code]891 dunwellguitar3:/etc/init.d
> rpm -ivh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/centos-release-5-5.el5.centos.i386.rpm
Retrieving http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/centos-release-5-5.el5.centos.i386.rpm
error: Failed dependencies:
centos-release-notes is needed by centos-release-5-5.el5.centos.i386
892 dunwellguitar3:/etc/init.d
> 892 dunwellguitar3:/etc/init.d
> rpm -ivh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/centos-release-notes-5.5-0.i386.rpm
Retrieving http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/centos-release-notes-5.5-0.i386.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:centos-release-notes ########################################### [100%]
893 dunwellguitar3:/etc/init.d
elease-5-5.el5.centos.i386.rpmntos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/centos-r
Retrieving http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/i386/CentOS/centos-release-5-5.el5.centos.i386.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:centos-release ########################################### [100%]
894 dunwellguitar3:/etc/init.d
> yum install pirut system-config-kickstart
addons | 951 B 00:00
addons/primary | 202 B 00:00
base | 2.1 kB 00:00
base/primary_db | 1.6 MB 00:04
extras | 2.1 kB 00:00
extras/primary_db | 188 kB 00:00
updates | 1.9 kB 00:00
updates/primary_db | 896 kB 00:02
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package pirut.noarch 0:1.3.28-17.el5.centos set to be updated
---> Package system-config-kickstart.noarch 0:2.6.19.8-2.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

===================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
===================================================================================================
Installing:
pirut noarch 1.3.28-17.el5.centos base 352 k
system-config-kickstart noarch 2.6.19.8-2.el5 base 986 k

Transaction Summary
===================================================================================================
Install 2 Package(s)
Upgrade 0 Package(s)

Total download size: 1.3 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): pirut-1.3.28-17.el5.centos.noarch.rpm | 352 kB 00:01
(2/2): system-config-kickstart-2.6.19.8-2.el5.noarch.rpm | 986 kB 00:02
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 303 kB/s | 1.3 MB 00:04
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : pirut 1/2
Installing : system-config-kickstart 2/2

Installed:
pirut.noarch 0:1.3.28-17.el5.centos system-config-kickstart.noarch 0:2.6.19.8-2.el5

Complete!
[/code]

Following this I just ran
[code]yum update[/code]
and it is grinding away as we speak/type on the zillion packages that it found needed updating.

Further, I did a tail of /var/log/up2date and the last error message there was from [Wed Dec 22 16:03:10 2010] so it looks like yum -e of the rhn processes took care of that as well.

From the looks of it, unless something else crops up, that at least the second of my two issues is resolved, that of the errors in the log file. I will have to wait till all the yum update packages are complete to do a restart and see if getting in the real system resolves the issue of the RH logos and ShadowMan. I'll report back on that as soon as I'm able to do a reboot.

Alan D.

[dunwell]

The yum update completed and I did a restart. Now it comes up with the blue CentOS screens while booting and I get the proper CentOS login screen and the CentOS logo replacing the Shadow Man icon on the main gui pages.

So I claim this thread is resolved. Clearly it was just that the steps I did resulted in the CentOS system not being installed properly and not all of the Red Hat being removed. The question remains as to what exactly were the steps I did wrong, but perhaps it doesn't matter if the likelihood of someone else doing so is small.

I have to say that I am impressed with the help I received here, both in knowledge and in tenacity. This type of problem can be quite hard to diagnose remotely and both of you knew just what to try to get meaningful test results. That is not easy! Kudos to all who helped out.

Alan D.

[toracat]

Glad to hear you are all good to go.

Now, you can definitely contribute to the community now that you've gone through this. Please take a look at the Migration page once again:

http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/MigrationGuide

and see if you can come up with something that may improve the instructions. Any useful hints or do's or dont's...

[AlanBartlett]

[quote]
Further, I did a tail of /var/log/up2date and the last error message there was from [Wed Dec 22 16:03:10 2010] so it looks like yum -e of the rhn processes took care of that as well.
[/quote]
You might like to check who owns the [i]up2date[/i] log file --

[code]
[b]rpm -qf /var/log/up2date[/b]
[/code]
-- and if, as I suspect will be the case, it is an unloved orphan, it can just be deleted.

[quote]
I have to say that I am impressed with the help I received here, both in knowledge and in tenacity. This type of problem can be quite hard to diagnose remotely and both of you knew just what to try to get meaningful test results. That is not easy! Kudos to all who helped out.
[/quote]
You are welcome. I know I can also speak -- type -- for [b]toracat[/b] here. We actually get enjoyment out of resolving issues. As you have mentioned, there is a need to obtain information so that the picture can be seen -- then it just comes down to a two-way (or, in this this case, three-way) dialogue whilst each step is taken (and checking that the expected result has been obtained). :-)

[dunwell]

[quote]
AlanBartlett wrote:

You might like to check who owns the [i]up2date[/i] log file --

[code]
[b]rpm -qf /var/log/up2date[/b]
[/code]
-- and if, as I suspect will be the case, it is an unloved orphan, it can just be deleted.[/quote]
As you suspected
[code]878 dunwellguitar3:/home/dunwell/xfer
> rpm -qf /var/log/up2date
file /var/log/up2date is not owned by any package[/code]
Poor little orphan . I'll toss all the up2date logs

[quote]You are welcome. I know I can also speak -- type -- for [b]toracat[/b] here. We actually get enjoyment out of resolving issues. As you have mentioned, there is a need to obtain information so that the picture can be seen -- then it just comes down to a two-way (or, in this this case, three-way) dialogue whilst each step is taken (and checking that the expected result has been obtained). :-)[/quote]

Understood. Give me a bit of time to look it over and see if I can see where I went wrong for sure. Should I tack that info on the end here or post up a new thread?
Alan D.

[AlanBartlett]

[quote]
Should I tack that info on the end here or post up a new thread?
[/quote]
Being a firm believer in the principle of [i]KISS[/i], I would recommend the former, as it is relevant to this thread.

[dunwell]

Sorry to be so long in getting back to this, holidays and gotta-be-done stuff.

In any case, after looking over what I did and the two guide pages I was following it seems that my error was in not sticking to one page or the other. In particular when I was partly following the centos wiki page I inadvertently did the command
[code]rpm -ivh \
[/code]
and I don't really know what that does if not followed by arguments. Given that, I still don't understand why my direct manual rpm installs did not either "take" or throw error messages if the downloaded rpms were faulty. I specifically recommend that no one use the browser file-save method that I did. I suspect that the rpms were bad or had flawed checksums and did not install correctly.

I also still don't understand why wget could not access the files. In some cases it was telling me that it could not find the files. Other times it gave vague error messages that implied I didn't have rights to access the files (not errors about local save rights, I was root). So the straight rpm -ivh with the http addresses is the way to go.

When looking at the two pages I would only comment that perhaps the wiki page might add in commads for
[code]http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.5/os/i386/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-5[/code]
and later import it
and
[code]http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.5/os/i386/CentOS/yum-fastestmirror-1.1.16-14.el5.centos.1.noarch.rpm[/code]
as part of the install line. Perhaps these are not needed if the regular wiki information is used and works but that would provide a merge of the Unixmen page info and the inclusion of the fastestmirror that turned out to be required.

Later on we did various gyrations related to installing the OS as it should have been followed by commands to yum install pirut and system-config-kickstart. Are these needed or was that just to recover from my initial failures?

My only other comment about the wiki page is that in the code windows you show the system prompt as a pound sign (#). This was at first confusing since I was thinking that those were comment lines. You might consider a simple line early on that specifies that the # is the system prompt in the code blocks or use a different prompt character. This is clearly a "newbee" sort of error but that is also the sort of person who might be reading that page.

Alan D.