How to update/afterinstall on fresh Centos7.3 (Gnome)

[dime]

Hi all,

Trying to overcome my problems with the damaged installation of Centos 7.3 (my previous posting in this section), I did:

I re-installed Centos 7.0 using a live cd (burned 31.01.2015 from an image offered
at that moment).
I did choose the gnome install.
Immediately after install i did a 'yum update', which was processed to an end.
After install i had -in the grub menu at startup-
3.10.0-123.el7.x86_64
after the update above it has added on top of the menu:
3.10.0-327.4.4.el7.x86_64 7

Centos starts using the '327' line.

I find:
in applications/favorites: help is only help on gnome(3)
in applications/documentation: help is only help on gnome(3)

On https://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS7
in CentOS-7 (1511) Release Notes
Last updated: January 7, 2016:
in 'major changes' nor 'known issues' there is anything related to my problem.

On https://access.redhat.com/documentation ... index.html
i can not find information how to update.

My question now:
how do i find out which packages (and what they can do) are available for after-install (info in a GUI)?
how do i update or install other than using the 'yum update' or 'yum install xyz' on the command line?

Note: in my memory i have previous editions of Centos offered more on this and more programs in the initial install too..
I am not pleased with that but that will not matter you..
My memory (in the head, not in the machine) could have shortcomings though...

Thanks,
dime

[desertcat]

I don't envy you. I'm curious: Why did you do a Fresh Re-install? I was dreading that I was going to *have* to do that too, but yum update simply rolled the system over from 7.2 to 7.3.

There are a couple of useful commands that might help you:

yum update (of course)

yum install xyz (where xyz is the name of the package)

yum grouplist (this will list all the groups of packages)

yum groupinstall "xyz_group" ex. yum groupinstall "System Management"

The yum grouplist and the yum groupinstall commands are time savers and install all the programs dependencies, etc. all at once. Thus you can use either the very targeted "yum install xyz program, or use the "yum groupinstall "xyz_group"" to install ALL the programs in a related group rather than trying to install them on-by-one.

[desertcat]

BTW if you run the command uname -a the current kernel for CentOS 7.3 as of today 18 Dec 2016 is 3.10.0-514.2.2.el7.x86_64

[giulix63]

That sounds like a botched installation. Reinstall not using a Live CD, but the DVD (if you want Gnome) or just Minimal (if you're feeling bold). Possibly get a rolling release to save time, bandwidth and head scratching.

[desertcat]

In yet another follow-up...

When you run yum update it *should* update your kernel.

Kernel -327.4.4. is an EARLY kernel for CentOS 7.2 (the last kernel for CentOS 7.2 that was released was 3.10.0-327.36.3.el7.x86_64 . As I also pointed out the current kernel version for CentOS 7.3 is 3.10.0-514.2.2.el7.x86_64.

Maybe what you should consider is downloading a NEW .iso for 7.3 assuming they have hit the mirrors, and do a NEW install from the ground up. Backup your /home directory and then using a fresh .iso install and reformat the HDD /SSD.

Part of your problem I note is you say you are trying to overcome a damaged installation of CentOS 7.3, but did a re-install using a CentOS 7.0 live CD. BTW the CentOS 7.0 version was inherently buggy. I deleted 7.0 and did not switch to CentOS 7 until CentOS 7.1 came out. When 7.2 came out I did a Fresh Re-install from a 7.2 .iso, which why I was glad my machine simply rolled over from 7.2 --> 7.3 this time.

One thing else you might want to consider is that your damaged installation might not be a software issue, but rather a hardware issue ie. depending on the age of your HDD you are seeing the beginning of the end of your HDD. Been there; done that.

Thus the best advice I can give you is:

1. Consider the age of your HDD. If it is OLD consider replacing

2. Burn yourself a NEW 7.3 .iso image

3. Re-format and Re-partition your HDD or SSD

4. Do a NEW Re-install.

[desertcat]

That sounds like a botched installation. Reinstall not using a Live CD, but the DVD (if you want Gnome) or just Minimal (if you're feeling bold). Possibly get a rolling release to save time, bandwidth and head scratching.

Indeed Unfortunately I just finished a laptop conversion project (took a ASUS EeePC 1001PX built in Apr 2010 running Windoze XP Home Ed.) and installed CentOS 6.8 32-bit on it... via a USB Thumb Drive!!! It kept blowing up at a certain point during the installation, so I did a minimal install. It was indeed minimal. I then installed the various packages etc. using yum grouplist and yum groupinstall. Giant PITA, but the end result was worth it!!! For something that is only 10.3"x7" let's say this is no longer your Grandma's Little Laptop!!! You are also no longer in Kansas any more -- our house fell on top of the Wicked Bill of the West!!!