CentOS7 Installation |Bottleneck |

General support questions
desertcat
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Location: Tucson, AZ

Re: CentOS7 Installation |Bottleneck |

Post by desertcat » 2019/06/24 06:22:03

jmacdougca wrote:
2019/06/22 22:28:36
YUS! gparted worked! one tip was the dropdown bar to select your various disks.

CentOS7 installed. But now I can only log into the cmd is this because I installed a minimal install? I wanted to keep this machine as a working computer.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l0wicvly0ujfe ... 0.jpg?dl=0
Sorry for the lack of a response. I am packing up the house in preparation for a move. My entire network, except for my gateway and workstation is all that is still on line, and in 3 days they too go down.

OK first glad you got things sort of running, but why in the world did you choose a minimal install? With 1TB+ SSD's and HDD's available you just bought you a whole lot of work to not have installed a GUI, be it GNOME, KDE, xfce, Cinnamon, etc. Unless you are comfortable with a simple CLI and typing commands, or unless you are using the machine as a single task server, you just bought yourself a bucketful of trouble. You say, "I wanted to keep this machine as a working computer." do you mean you want to use it as a workstation, server, or general purpose machine? All my machines, including the gateway, have a GUI. God forbid something knocks out the rest of the machines behind my gateway, I can still use it to do a whole lot of trouble shooting, and to also get online. IF you plan to actually use this machine on a routine basis, add a GUI of your choice.

OK how best to do this? There are two ways:

1) Do a entire re-install -- just think it gives you some practice so that the next time it is not so terrifying. That is probably the fastest and simplest way, only next time do NOT choose a MINIMAL INSTALL. The default GUI for Red Hat (RHEL and CentOS) is GNOME. I do not like GNOME and never have, and love KDE, but alas KDE is going away, and I have been experimenting with Cinnamon which is very KDE-like, but which is not nearly as slick as KDE.

2) Install it from the CLI which is a little more esoteric but not greatly so:

Step 1: Become root (su Enter it will ask you for your root Password Enter)

Step 2: Enter the following command: yum grouplist. You will then be presented a list of groups that you can now install, including GNOME Desktop, MATE Desktop, Cinnamon Desktop, KDE Plasma Workspaces, etc., etc., etc.

Step 3: Say you want to install KDE (or GNOME, et al) now issue the command yum groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces" -- don't forget the " " marks at the beginning and end of the group/s you wish to install.

Step 4: It will come back and say something like: "Transaction Summary
===========================================================================================================
Install 1 Package (+14 Dependent packages)

Total download size: 2.2 M
Installed size: 4.1 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]:

Say y (yes) and it will then go out and find all the packages and dependent packages that are needed.

Step 5: Reboot your machine. When the machine reaches the point where you enter your user and password STOP! Depending upon on the type of desktop environment that you are faced with -- GNOME which will be recognizable by a white bar along the top of the page on the RIGHT side of the bar you will see various types of icons -- power, etc. the one one the LEFT side of that group of icons will -- if you click on it -- give you a drop down menu that lists all the various Desktop Environments that you have installed. Highlight and click on the one that says KDE Plasma Workspaces, which is the GUI group you just installed in our example.

If you have a KDE type desktop environment you will see a little gear which if I remember correctly is right below the Password box. Click on the Gear and it will give you a drop down list of the various desktops you currently have installed. As before select KDE Plasma Workspaces and hit enter. Now enter your user's Password

Step 6: Now hit Enter after you after you have given your user's Password and it will now come up in the KDE GUI.

BTW the yum grouplist and yum group install commands are good ones to remember. I have a number of times had to do a MINIMAL install because of some corrupted packages, and I then went in and MANUALLY added back in the groups that had been had been corrupted during the install phase.

Truthfully if I were you I would simply do an entire re-install as that is far easier, however if you struggled with the install and simply don't want to go back down that road again, then use the yum grouplist and yum groupinstall " ..." commands from the CLI.

I may not be back here for several weeks depending on how my move goes and problems I might encounter both before and after.

Best Fishes

P.S. One final tip: There is a nifty little utility that dates back to the days of DOS and was created and included in a suite of utilities called Norton Utilities, called Norton Commander (nc). Norton Commander was updated for use with *nix including Linux, called Midnight Commander (mc) -- it even uses many of the exact same hotkey combinations as nc. It uses ncurses and you can you a LOT with this nifty. To install Midnight Commander use yum install mc

jmacdougca
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Joined: 2017/12/09 00:49:14
Location: West Vancouver, BC
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Re: CentOS7 Installation |Bottleneck |

Post by jmacdougca » 2019/06/24 20:28:57

desertcat, enjoy the move. New Beginnings. Thank you for the in depth response. we are on the same page with [reinstall the OS].
but why in the world did you choose a minimal install?
This is my fault. I click too much too fast and now I have created another obstacle. Which brings me to the current bottleneck

When I am in the installation the OS sda3 doesnt show up as an option to install the OS. Please see:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mxyndxa20s9xe ... R.jpg?dl=0

Why isn't sda3 showing up here? I must be missing something...

I wasn't sure if I should have started a new thread or not
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desertcat
Posts: 843
Joined: 2014/08/07 02:17:29
Location: Tucson, AZ

Re: CentOS7 Installation |Bottleneck |

Post by desertcat » 2019/06/24 23:54:03

jmacdougca wrote:
2019/06/24 20:28:57
desertcat, enjoy the move. New Beginnings. Thank you for the in depth response. we are on the same page with [reinstall the OS]. fdis
but why in the world did you choose a minimal install?
This is my fault. I click too much too fast and now I have created another obstacle. Which brings me to the current bottleneck

When I am in the installation the OS sda3 doesnt show up as an option to install the OS. Please see:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mxyndxa20s9xe ... R.jpg?dl=0

Why isn't sda3 showing up here? I must be missing something...
Let me try to explain it this way: You have DEVICES, and then you have PARTITIONS. sda3 is a PARTITION on the DEVICE /dev/sda

If you run the command fdisk -l it will show you all the physical DEVICES ie /dev/sda; /dev/sdb; /dev/sdc; etc., etc., etc. Go back to your photo and look at it. One says sda, the device next to it says sdb. There is a 3rd drive that is listed as BIOS RAID set.

If you run fdisk -l you will see all the devices, plus you will see all the partitions associated with each device. For example let us choose /dev/sda. Depending on how you have it configured you might see something like this:
(this is from *MY* actual drive).

Disk /dev/sda: 525.1 GB, 525112713216 bytes, 1025610768 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00039d35

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 2152398 1075175+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 2152399 288407147 143127374+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 288407148 389070443 50331648 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 389070444 1025607741 318268649 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 389070446 587246810 99088182+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 587246812 719364387 66058788 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 719364389 785423176 33029394 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 785423178 806926689 10751756 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 806926691 817678446 5375878 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 817682432 1025607679 103962624 83 Linux

The first three (3) partitions are called PRIMARY PARTITIONS. /dev/sda4 does not really exist but marks the beginning of the EXTENDED PARTITIONS that start with /dev/sda5. Thus you will see something like this: /dev/sda1-3; /dev/sda5 --> Last Partition. Now depending on what you are using to list partitions, the answer *may be* that your /dev/sda3 partition is your SWAP Partition, thus all that is shown is /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sda5, etc. Again if you simply run fdisk -l from the CLI it should show you the devices and their partitions, as well as the location where your SWAP file is located.

Word of WARNING: IF you plan on a reinstall DISCONNECT all the drives except ONE to identify which drive is the one that has your CentOS install on it so that you do NOT accidentally over write the data of the drives which have data that you do not want to overwrite. Once you have ID the drive that has CentOS on it, with the other two drives still disconnected, run GParted once again to reformat the drive (by now you should be getting to be an expert in using GParted) and then proceed to do your reinstall. It is very important to ID the drive that has CentOS on it as you has 2 exactly the same drives, with the exact same ID identifier on it. Only ONE of the two has CentOS on it and the other does not. BE VERY, VERY, CAREFUL.

The saner way to install a GUI at this point is to simply install it from the CLI using yum grouplist, and yum groupinstall " ..." that I gave you in my last post. Why saner?!? Since you are already at a CentOS CLI it is simply faster but it also avoids the potential that you might format and overwrite the WRONG DRIVE. That would be disastrous!! By operating from the CLI the GUI will be written to the correct drive without chance of error.

IF you decide to do a re-install, you have taken precautions to ID the CORRECT drive that has your CentOS install on it, you have DISCONNECTED the two drives which have data on it you do not want to overwrite, etc. You are now ready to go. TAKE YOUR TIME DOING THE INSTALL!!! CAREFULLY go through the install step-by-step. ID your correct time zone, correct keyboard, correct language (though unless you live in some part of the world where English is not the default language, the default will be English). When you get to the place where it lists the software to install, choose OS + GUI -- do NOT choose MINIMAL INSTALL. GNOME is the DEFAULT GUI, but it also lists KDE I'd install BOTH and experiment with both. Since KDE is going away when CentOS 8 comes out you might want to install Cinnamon which is very KDE-like. The install reflects YOU thus it merits your time to do it right. As you get better, and you get more comfortable with both doing installs from the ground up, partitioning schemes, the CLI, the types of GUI's available, etc., you might want to upgrade your computer when the next point release comes out, and do an entire reinstall, or might want to simply "roll over" the machine to the next point release. In the not to distant past the ONLY way to upgrade your machine to the next point release was to do an entire new install.

Do your install CAREFULLY and with INTENT. Make your install YOURS!!! There are no two computers that will be EXACTLY the same when you run Linux. My buddy and I have the EXACT same computer hardware -- they were built at the EXACT same time. We did it so we can determine if in the event if something goes wrong is it a HARDWARE problem, or a SOFTWARE problem. Yet the two computers are vastly different-- his more focused, while mine is more multi-purpose. They are configured differently too. He uses LVM while I use a standard partition scheme. There are other differences too, yet either one of us could sit down at the other's computer and use it without any problem. He is an old UNIX hand while I cut my teeth on IBM-DOS as well as MS-DOS.

OK it is T-MINUS 6 days and counting before I am to be out of here and there are still more boxes to pack -- SIGH!!

Best Fishes

jmacdougca
Posts: 103
Joined: 2017/12/09 00:49:14
Location: West Vancouver, BC
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Re: CentOS7 Installation |Bottleneck |

Post by jmacdougca » 2019/06/25 03:08:40

@desertcat
6 more days! Is your current place empty right now?
*the answer may be* /dev/sda3 partition is your SWAP Partition

Nope. sdb3 has the [SWAP] mount point.

Here is the partition I want to install OS
fdisk -l shows sda3 as

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda3 2508800 937693183 935184384 446G Linux filesystem

I noticed in gparted there was an error sign for sda3 https://www.dropbox.com/s/sva3eflhl0sdt ... 8.png?dl=0
I reformatted the sda3 now no error. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ddrh5fhcmje9a ... 8.png?dl=0

I am going to shut down disconnect the raid5 and other HD to see if the OS install will find my hard drive to install. Recall that is my bottleneck.

I will report back.
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jmacdougca
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Joined: 2017/12/09 00:49:14
Location: West Vancouver, BC
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Re: CentOS7 Installation |Bottleneck |

Post by jmacdougca » 2019/06/25 03:45:58

Its loaded up now! W00t! CentOS7,
1) now I need to enable ssh access..
2) How to remove the password at login screen to the OS loads up with no password
3) How to change terminal to black and white instead of white and black.
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desertcat
Posts: 843
Joined: 2014/08/07 02:17:29
Location: Tucson, AZ

Re: CentOS7 Installation |Bottleneck |

Post by desertcat » 2019/06/25 23:03:18

jmacdougca wrote:
2019/06/25 03:08:40
@desertcat
6 more days! Is your current place empty right now?
*the answer may be* /dev/sda3 partition is your SWAP Partition

Nope. sdb3 has the [SWAP] mount point.

Here is the partition I want to install OS
fdisk -l shows sda3 as

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda3 2508800 937693183 935184384 446G Linux filesystem

I noticed in gparted there was an error sign for sda3 https://www.dropbox.com/s/sva3eflhl0sdt ... 8.png?dl=0
I reformatted the sda3 now no error. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ddrh5fhcmje9a ... 8.png?dl=0

I am going to shut down disconnect the raid5 and other HD to see if the OS install will find my hard drive to install. Recall that is my bottleneck.

I will report back.

SIGH!! 5 Days left! Unfortunately not. I am currently swimming in a sea of boxes. Waiting for a Sec. 8 Inspector to go out and inspect the place, approve it, then I have to run like a roadrunner, turn in the voucher, sign the lease, and pick up the keys... and that won't happen until FRIDAY and I have to be out of here on SUNDAY...

Glad you finally got your install finished. Just out of sheer curiosity -- fatal problem for cats -- did you go with GNOME, KDE, or both?!? Don't forget to install Midnight Commander -- yum install mc -- trust me it will save you a load of work.

Any rate I'm out of here -- Goodbye cruel world. The gateway and workstation go down tomorrow. See you on the flip side... whenever that is.

Bye

jmacdougca
Posts: 103
Joined: 2017/12/09 00:49:14
Location: West Vancouver, BC
Contact:

Re: CentOS7 Installation |Bottleneck |

Post by jmacdougca » 2019/06/27 00:56:30

Ah transition times create opportunity.
Here is a pic of mc; https://www.dropbox.com/s/hf9jw1pm3l6v8 ... 9.jpg?dl=0
I went with GNOME, it came with the install.
Asta Lavista, Merci Beaucoup for the help.

P.$. Get a free cat mybestfriendsarecats.com
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