CentOS 6

So it appears that CentOS 6 is actually rolling out to public mirror sites. When typically does linode.com make a new major release such as this available? Not looking to nail down an exact date, but is it typically days, weeks, months etc.

50 Replies

If it was Ubuntu or Debian, a day or two. CentOS? It's a lot less popular, and Linode is an Ubuntu shop, so I dunno. The last Linode CentOS release announcement I see is for 5.0, and that was years ago. (5.6 is available currently, but it doesn't seem to have been announced.) FWIW, Fedora 15 was up in 2 days, and it's far less popular than CentOS.

Besides, they're taking a page from the Duke Nukem Forever management team, it's still not really out.

It was supposed to rsync to mirrors on July 5th. It's now the 9th and not a single mirror has it, nor has the dev list announced it's actually released.

Linode should switch over to Scientific Linux. Less Drama, more timely releases.

On the normal centos list we see that the mirrors are syncing; the code has been released.

SL6 doesn't do as rigorous testing as CentOS; some broken dependencies were in their release. SL6 is not a replacement for CentOS.

When Fedora 15 came out they had it ready the next day.

@sweh:

SL6 doesn't do as rigorous testing as CentOS
What's the source on that statement?

We've moved from CentOS 5.5 to SL6.0 with zero problems (so far - knock on wood), but if there's something published about SL please share.

//and I still can't find a mirror with CentOS 6.0

You are 99.99% likely to be fine with SL6. However CentOS does a level of checking on version dependencies that SL6 doesn't do (see, for example, http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/cento … 08389.html">http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2011-March/108389.html). For most people this won't be an issue.

C6 is internal sync'ing on the mirror network; not yet open to the public. But it is sync'ing, as they said it would. According to qaweb ( http://qaweb.dev.centos.org/qa ) it should start syncing to the externally visible machines today… with luck!

There exists a directory on my local mirror, which is throwing an intentional-looking 403: http://mirrors.rit.edu/centos/

You'll probably be able to tell when it goes live: http://narcissus.rc.rit.edu/chart/mono/ … ename/hour">http://narcissus.rc.rit.edu/chart/mono/bubble/filename/hour

http://qaweb.dev.centos.org/qa/node/105#comment-115 with an update from Fri Jul 8th > Update: 4:10PM PDT – Mirrors are picking up the release. The mirrors will remain "bit-flipped" (read: locked from public access) until it's decided that the release has made it to a sufficient number of mirrors for release. Watch the CentOS-Announce mailing list and/or #centos IRC channel for more info on the release. Anything you download from mirrors before the announcement may not be the final packages, and you may put your system into a funky state -- use at your own risk.

Full ISOs (and torrents!) now available @ http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/isos/

Huzzah!

can't wait to install it on my linode.

I'm really looking forward to this release. Hopefully, the great Linode folks will have this available for us soon.

And regarding 6.1:

> Since upstream has a 6.1 version already released, we will be using a

Continous Release repository for 6.0 to bring all 6.1 and post 6.1

security updates to all 6.0 users, till such time as CentOS-6.1 is

released itself. There will be more details about this posted within the

next 48 hours.

So, install away is my vote!

Here's the announcement: http://www.mail-archive.com/centos-anno … 05641.html">http://www.mail-archive.com/centos-announce@centos.org/msg05641.html

I would like to upgrade but I do not want to reconfigure al the services I need.

:?

Count me among those awaiting Centos 6.

@bleeter:

+1 for C6

me too!!! :)

We need Google+ +1 buttons in this forum.

I'm in for +1 on a node! More if it performs better than Squeeze.

Another vote for CentOS 6 availability ASAP please.

Please Linode I want Centos 6. It would make me very happy. :D :D :D

CentOS6 means I'm no longer building packages for my boxes…

1) MySQL enabled Postfix (instead of just LDAP)!

2) Sieve plugin for Dovecot!

I'd be a pretty happy guy if this appeared…

Another vote for Centos 6 here

@sblantipodi:

can't wait to install it on my linode.

Have you done it through the recovery console yet? If so please send directions my way :)

There isn't that much to it.

I created two partitions, one for /boot, and one for /. From here, I booted into finnix and dropped the kernel and initrd into /boot/install (just a directory I made, nothing fancy – I just didn't want any conflicts). A simple reboot into pv_grub, and type three lines:

root (hd0)
kernel /install/vmlinuz
initrd /install/initrd.img

… and it will kick off the installer. I'll give you a warning though: it isn't going to be pretty over lish.

If you have the RAM, you can pull off a GUI install over VNC, and specify a password on the kernel boot line. See this for all of the options: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AnacondaBootOptions

PS: Pull the vmlinuz and the initrd.img file from almost any mirror… such as this one: http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/os … /isolinux/">http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/os/x86_64/isolinux/

edit: so there are issues with the lish console and the installer, namely the disk selection part. So, I wrote a kickstart file. This will install almost nothing -- a grand total of 208 packages -- and if you know what you're doing with respect to partitioning and etc, you can probably have a C6 install up and running in 10 minutes.

You'll probably have to play with the partition options unless you have yours setup identically like mine (xvda = /boot, xvdb = /, xvdc = swap). Note that this will blow away all existing partitions as well, so if you botch it then you get to re-download the kernel and initrd.

install
url --url=http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/os/x86_64/
text
lang en_US.UTF-8
keyboard us
network --device eth0 --bootproto dhcp
rootpw  --plaintext **REPLACEME**
firewall --service=ssh
authconfig --enableshadow --passalgo=sha512 --enablefingerprint
selinux --enforcing
timezone --utc Etc/UTC
firstboot --disabled
bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=xvda,xvdb --append="crashkernel=auto rhgb quiet"
clearpart --all
part /boot --ondisk=xvda --size=1 --grow --fstype=ext2
part / --ondisk=xvdb --size=1 --grow --fstype=ext4
part swap --ondisk=xvdc --size=1 --grow --fstype=swap
%packages --nobase
vim-enhanced
openssh-clients
@core
%end

WORKED LIKE A CHARM.

Thanks man, I'm a newbie when it comes to some of this, but I was able to get it installed using the method you mentioned.

@kbrantley:

There isn't that much to it.

I created two partitions, one for /boot, and one for /. From here, I booted into finnix and dropped the kernel and initrd into /boot/install (just a directory I made, nothing fancy – I just didn't want any conflicts). A simple reboot into pv_grub, and type three lines:

root (hd0)
kernel /install/vmlinuz
initrd /install/initrd.img

… and it will kick off the installer. I'll give you a warning though: it isn't going to be pretty over lish.

If you have the RAM, you can pull off a GUI install over VNC, and specify a password on the kernel boot line. See this for all of the options: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AnacondaBootOptions

PS: Pull the vmlinuz and the initrd.img file from almost any mirror… such as this one: http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/os … /isolinux/">http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/os/x86_64/isolinux/

edit: so there are issues with the lish console and the installer, namely the disk selection part. So, I wrote a kickstart file. This will install almost nothing -- a grand total of 208 packages -- and if you know what you're doing with respect to partitioning and etc, you can probably have a C6 install up and running in 10 minutes.

You'll probably have to play with the partition options unless you have yours setup identically like mine (xvda = /boot, xvdb = /, xvdc = swap). Note that this will blow away all existing partitions as well, so if you botch it then you get to re-download the kernel and initrd.

install
url --url=http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/os/x86_64/
text
lang en_US.UTF-8
keyboard us
network --device eth0 --bootproto dhcp
rootpw  --plaintext **REPLACEME**
firewall --service=ssh
authconfig --enableshadow --passalgo=sha512 --enablefingerprint
selinux --enforcing
timezone --utc Etc/UTC
firstboot --disabled
bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=xvda,xvdb --append="crashkernel=auto rhgb quiet"
clearpart --all
part /boot --ondisk=xvda --size=1 --grow --fstype=ext2
part / --ondisk=xvdb --size=1 --grow --fstype=ext4
part swap --ondisk=xvdc --size=1 --grow --fstype=swap
%packages --nobase
vim-enhanced
openssh-clients
@core
%end

I was overly enthusiastic. The install proceeded fine, I even ran it through VNC and a graphical install, but when the system rebooted Linode gave me an error saying it could not start for some reason. I made a CentOS profile with a paravirt kernel to boot it under with /dev/hda being boot (where the graphical installer installed the bootloader) and /hdb being the root partition. /hdc is the swap partition (I think). Any ideas? lish won't even give me an error.

@tesmar:

WORKED LIKE A CHARM.

Thanks man, I'm a newbie when it comes to some of this, but I was able to get it installed using the method you mentioned.

@kbrantley:

There isn't that much to it.

I created two partitions, one for /boot, and one for /. From here, I booted into finnix and dropped the kernel and initrd into /boot/install (just a directory I made, nothing fancy – I just didn't want any conflicts). A simple reboot into pv_grub, and type three lines:

root (hd0)
kernel /install/vmlinuz
initrd /install/initrd.img

… and it will kick off the installer. I'll give you a warning though: it isn't going to be pretty over lish.

If you have the RAM, you can pull off a GUI install over VNC, and specify a password on the kernel boot line. See this for all of the options: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AnacondaBootOptions

PS: Pull the vmlinuz and the initrd.img file from almost any mirror… such as this one: http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/os … /isolinux/">http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/os/x86_64/isolinux/

edit: so there are issues with the lish console and the installer, namely the disk selection part. So, I wrote a kickstart file. This will install almost nothing -- a grand total of 208 packages -- and if you know what you're doing with respect to partitioning and etc, you can probably have a C6 install up and running in 10 minutes.

You'll probably have to play with the partition options unless you have yours setup identically like mine (xvda = /boot, xvdb = /, xvdc = swap). Note that this will blow away all existing partitions as well, so if you botch it then you get to re-download the kernel and initrd.

install
url --url=http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/6.0/os/x86_64/
text
lang en_US.UTF-8
keyboard us
network --device eth0 --bootproto dhcp
rootpw  --plaintext **REPLACEME**
firewall --service=ssh
authconfig --enableshadow --passalgo=sha512 --enablefingerprint
selinux --enforcing
timezone --utc Etc/UTC
firstboot --disabled
bootloader --location=mbr --driveorder=xvda,xvdb --append="crashkernel=auto rhgb quiet"
clearpart --all
part /boot --ondisk=xvda --size=1 --grow --fstype=ext2
part / --ondisk=xvdb --size=1 --grow --fstype=ext4
part swap --ondisk=xvdc --size=1 --grow --fstype=swap
%packages --nobase
vim-enhanced
openssh-clients
@core
%end

This really is not for everyone. For one, you'll get some stuff that linode has no need for (device firmware). For two, you get to configure the bootloader (as you are finding out). If you are having difficulty with this, then it would probably be best to wait for linode to roll out their version of it.

On the upside, I've got selinux now…

How should I be configuring the bootloader to work? If that is the last step then I am really close. Any special steps I need to go through?

From http://www.linode.com/wiki/index.php/PV-GRUB:

> Linode has PV-GRUB configured to search for menu.lst at (hd0)/boot/grub/menu.lst. This means that your first disk (ie. /dev/xvda) cannot be partitioned. It has to contain a filesystem with at least your /boot directory (including /boot/grub).

So you'll need to perform surgery on xvda to remove the partitioning and replace it with just a straight filesystem. tar it up, mkfs.ext2 (or 3) /dev/xvda, and then extract it again.

Once extracted, you'll need to put one more symlink in place to appease the linode bootloader, but that is a simple ln -s . boot once you're in /boot.

Be sure to update your /etc/fstab with the new UUID (find it in /dev/disk/by-uuid) and potentially your /boot/grub/menu.list as well to point to the proper device (mine only said 'xvdb1' when it should have said 'xvdb1').

So yeah, that kickstart is not exactly optimal. :)

personally I will wait for an official support from Linode guys,

hoping that it will arrive soon.

How much lag time has there been in the past when a new distro version was released?

I got it working. I redid the install and hand-crafted the disk setup (with help from a friend) making only the / drive LVM. The other drive was just a straight partition. I rebooted and did what you said to do with tarring and making the symlink and fixing /etc/fstab

It now boots and I am on my way.

Thanks for your help!

@sblantipodi:

personally I will wait for an official support from Linode guys,

hoping that it will arrive soon.

CentOS 6 (32 and 64 bit) is now listed in the Distribution drop down!

@dffdce:

CentOS 6 (32 and 64 bit) is now listed in the Distribution drop down!

its true, is it stable and officially supported now?

I will wait for an official annoucement.

As it's listed under their "Current Distro" on their FAQ page, and it's a choice in their which distro pull down menu, I'm not sure it can get any more official.

@vonskippy:

As it's listed under their "Current Distro" on their FAQ page, and it's a choice in their which distro pull down menu, I'm not sure it can get any more official.

ok, is there some saint that will make a small guide on how to painlessy switch from CentOS 5.6 to CentOS 6?

http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=4946

Looks like no…

@kbrantley:

http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=4946

Looks like no…

I don't mean to upgrade centos 5.6 to 6.0, I mean that it would be great to have a guide on how to install centOS 6.0 on new linode and than transfer the configuration from the old one to the new one.

can't understand why there isn't an official rss feed or news on the site that annouce the CentOS 6 availability.

Dun dun dun daaaaaaaaaa (fancy musical fanfare)

Heare, heare, let all members of the land of Linodeia know that from this date forward the vast greatness of CentOS 6.0 will be available to all good citizens. Use it in good health so that all in the Kingdom may prosper!

–--

There, are you happy now?

@vonskippy:

Dun dun dun daaaaaaaaaa (fancy musical fanfare)

Heare, heare, let all members of the land of Linodeia know that from this date forward the vast greatness of CentOS 6.0 will be available to all good citizens. Use it in good health so that all in the Kingdom may prosper!

–--

There, are you happy now?

its funny but they usually makes a news for every new distro available on linode.

This is comfortable because I know when a new distro is available from my RSS client without needing to visit the forum every day and without needing to login to my llinode's dashboard every time I want to know if a distro has been supported.

Can't understand why they doesn't made a news for CentOS :)

@sblantipodi:

I don't mean to upgrade centos 5.6 to 6.0, I mean that it would be great to have a guide on how to install centOS 6.0 on new linode and than transfer the configuration from the old one to the new one. Yes please, for a real novice like me this would be immensely helpful, because it was already hard enough setting the server up in the first place.

There is no upgrade path between 5.6 and 6.0 you have to build a new server and copy your files over.

@obs:

There is no upgrade path between 5.6 and 6.0 you have to build a new server and copy your files over.

I have just done the upgrade, this is true.

Yeah, but I was wondering more about how you copied the files from server to server and such…

@sondrizzle:

Yeah, but I was wondering more about how you copied the files from server to server and such…

I have a partition where I store my services and my website file,

that partition can be copied painless by using the clone funtionalities from linode manager.

The configuration file must be copied manually or using ssh GET or SCP if you need to transfer directory.

With SCP I transferred directories at lighting fast speed from my linode to my second linode because the two nodes are on the same datacenter.

You know, there are many ways to transfer files between servers.

Software must be obviously reinstalled from scratch but yum + epel is your friend.

Pay much attention to the mirror priorities, epel is really unkind with other repos.

rsync is a good tool for copying files between servers, also you can assign your old and new linode internal ips if they're in the same dc which won't use your bandwidth.

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