Upgrading to Scientific Linux 7.0 from 6.5 and 5.5

random notes

• SL7 is only available as x86-64: 64 bit CPUs . . . Laptops T7x00 x=[246] socket M, [135] ball grid array
• dd if=SL-7everything.iso of=/dev/sdb to USB drive
• how much RAM can Thinkpad + x86-64 access - still looks like 3 GB even with 4 GB of RAM
  • new machine has 4 - can be changed to 3, I have 2x1 in a plastic package

• manual disk partition ? add notes

• USE MATE INSTEAD OF GNOME
  • yum clean all
  • yum update
  • yum update epel-release
  • yum install mate-desktop
  • yum install mate-backgrounds mate-calc
  • yum install mate-dialogs mate-disk-usage-analyzer mate-icon-theme mate-icon-theme-faenza mate-media mate-screensaver mate-screenshot mate-search-tool mate-utils mate-themes mate-system-log mate-system-monitor mate-terminal mate-settings-daemon mate-power-manager caja caja-open-terminal caja-sendto firefox gedit firewall-config network-manager-applet system-config-language system-config-users dconf-editor
  • Keyboard / Layout / Options ... under CTL-ALT-BS, check key sequence to kill the X server
• Where is about firefox? drop down box, question mark at bottom
  • Version 31.3.0 ESR
  • ? restore home button

  • Replace Google with DuckDuckGo

• sudo yum erase nepomuk core gets rid of a lot of useless KDE crap

  • also gets rid of K3B, use Brasero
• /usr/local/bin/gstart - customize per machine
  • needs wmctrl, the version for RHEL6 works fine

Dual screen control

MoreLater

There are non-intuitive aspects of the SL/RHEL install. The first is the response to a non-64 bit CPU - the install hangs with the "atom" image but does not emit an error message.

Two more aspects are manual partitioning, and setting up networking. Both are on the "INITIALIZATION SUMMARY" page. You must click the right selection under "SYSTEM": "NETWORK & HOSTNAME" and then set up the machine with the particulars of your network. Otherwise, the install does not set up and test networking - which is good default behavior, connecting to networks should be intentional and informed in this dangerous world.

AFTER setting up networking, you can set "DATE & TIME" and your NTP server, select additional software (again, a minimum install is the safe default), and make other tweaks.

The SL7-With-Everything install image is 4.2 GB, and won't fit on an ordinary DVD. Even with that huge imag3, install draws some packages from the server, and updates after boot.

I install off a USB flash drive; 8 GB Lexar drives on sale $4.99 at Office Depot. You create the drive with "dd if=SL-7-mumble.iso of=/dev/sdb" (or whatever, be careful to pick the correct flash drive!). Flash drives are much faster, and boot with most computers, though you want a drive with an activity light so you know that it is still working.

Now I am making GNOME 3 look like GNOME 2. I hate tablet computer UI's. Start by clicking the gear symbol on the login page, and select Gnome Classic. I'm still figuring out how to make my new desktop look like my old desktop, and a lot of old features are moved or missing. I'm slowly making notes at http://wiki.keithl.com/SL7

BTW, my download from Fermilab to my Frontier FIOS home was capped at 4 mbps, even though I pay for 15 mbps service. 2 hour distro download. I get full bandwidth from most other sources. My offsite server can download the distro at 800 mbps, about 45 seconds. I presume one of the peering connections is throttling the download to provide high QOS for video. I hate TV over IP.