Unable To Get a Minimal Install

[Carlwill]

I did a CentOS 5 "netinst" on my server and I made sure when I did the installation I selected "customize software selections" and "de-selected" every option to avoid pulling dependencies of packages I don't want and or need. So in short, I let the system install and do its thing hoping to get a bare minimal install of 5.1 and when I review the install log, I have so much garbage and don't want and I am 100% sure I did not select.

I see mysql, mysql-lite, sendmail, sendmail-cf, wpa_supplicant, cups*, nfs*, etc etc etc.

This is going to be a DoD email server and the last thing I want to do after I install a fresh server is "yum remove <package> over and over and leave all this config garbage behind...

Why is this occuring and how do I get a bare minimal install of 5.1?

[Ned Slider]

To get a bare minimum install you should do an install from DVD or CD1 and deselect EVERYTHING, including base. That's as minimal as you can get with the installer. I'm not sure on the net install - did you deselect base? The installer kind of implies base is a needed group, but it is not - it's safe to deselect it. Base just consists of a set of packages that most users would want.

A lot of packages may still get installed that you were not expecting - this is because they were needed to resolve dependencies for what was installed.

Also, don't use yum to remove packages as it will silently remove all dependencies which may not be what you want. It is better to use rpm to remove packages as you will get to see and resolve dependencies.

[Carlwill]

I don't recall seeing an option to "select / deselect" base but the Army is looking at the email server and seeing stuff like "bluez-utils, bluez-gnome" and so many other useless packages for a server. I think it was a huge inconvenience to get rid of the minimal install option available in RHEL/CENTOS 4.

So rather than "yum remove cups" I should use "rpm -e cups"? Is there an option to purge all config files and misc. files that usually trail behind after deletion?

[Ned Slider]

I don't recall seeing an option to "select / deselect" base...

Well, it's there, second option down in Base System

So rather than "yum remove cups" I should use "rpm -e cups"? Is there an option to purge all config files and misc. files that usually trail behind after deletion?

The reason to use rpm rather than yum is that rpm will show you want else needs to be removed (a Good Thing) whereas yum will just blindly remove them without asking (a Bad Thing). Other than that, their actions are identical as yum is simply a front end for rpm. Config files will be left behind if you have modified them, otherwise they should be removed.

[Carlwill]

Did a fresh install again today and de-selected "every" possible option. Basically under any selection window - if there was an option to have a check, I removed it. This allowed me to get a install running just from disk one. Now when the system was booted, I was unable to update the system since no yum utilities were installed, no rhn_register, and no ssh dameon.

[Spankin Partier]

IIRC, I think Mandrake used to keep all the packages in RPM format on the install CDs (5+ years ago). Thus it was easy to install new applications from the CD using:

rpmi /media/cdrom/somedirectory/somerpm.rpm

If Cent/RHEL still does things the same way, then you should be able to look for yum and install it manually.

[azca]

I was just taking a look at the first CentOS-5.2 CD, and noticed that there is no 'yum-fastestmirror' package. And this seems to be a dependency for the new 'yum' package.

[root@localhost yum]# yum deplist yum
Loading "protectbase" plugin
0 packages excluded due to repository protections
Finding dependencies: 
(...)
  dependency: yum-fastestmirror
   provider: yum-fastestmirror.noarch 1.1.10-9.el5.centos
(..)
[root@localhost yum]#

Listing of CD:

[hostazca@localhost CentOS]$ pwd
/media/cdrom/CentOS
[hostazca@localhost CentOS]$ ls -al yum*
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root 595885 Jun 14 16:23 yum-3.2.8-9.el5.centos.1.noarch.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root  25686 Jun 14 16:23 yum-metadata-parser-1.1.2-2.el5.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r-- 2 root root  22666 Jun 14 16:23 yum-updatesd-0.9-2.el5.noarch.rpm
[hostazca@localhost CentOS]$

So maybe installing 'yum' might be a problem? I'll find out when I do another install in another day or two to replace a flaky HD.

Anyway, this was on my new CentOS-5.2 CD. And if my new install fails - ie no yum - then I'll either cry or just do a minimal 5.1 (I know that works) and upgrade to 5.2.

Speaking of 'yum-fastestmirror' - that thing causes me nothing but grief, and is disabled on my rigs.

[Ned Slider]

It was decided at the last minute to add yum-fastestmirror as a dependency for yum as it enhances most users experience. I'll look into this though as perhaps the single CD install wasn't looked into thoroughly. It's not actually an officially supported install method, more of a workaround for those wanting a single server CD install media.

[azca]

Thanks Ned!

[Ned Slider]

OK, I've just done a minimal install from CD1 (x86_64) by deselecting all packages from the custom option and my install went fine.

I have 169 packages installed (including duplicate i386 packages) using around 687MB.

Yum is installed and working, as is sshd so I have no idea what you're doing Carwill. You mention rhn_register - is this a RHEL or CentOS install?

yum-fastestmirror isn't present though (as expected), but the dependency doesn't appear to cause an issue. Not even sendmail is installed so this is a very minimal install. Here's a full list of packages:

# rpm -qa | sort
audit-libs-1.6.5-9.el5
audit-libs-1.6.5-9.el5
audit-libs-python-1.6.5-9.el5
authconfig-5.3.21-3.el5
basesystem-8.0-5.1.1.el5.centos
bash-3.2-21.el5
beecrypt-4.1.2-10.1.1
bzip2-libs-1.0.3-3
centos-release-5-2.el5.centos
centos-release-notes-5.2-2
checkpolicy-1.33.1-4.el5
chkconfig-1.3.30.1-2
coreutils-5.97-14.el5
cpio-2.6-20
cracklib-2.8.9-3.3
cracklib-2.8.9-3.3
cracklib-dicts-2.8.9-3.3
cryptsetup-luks-1.0.3-2.2.el5
cyrus-sasl-lib-2.1.22-4
db4-4.3.29-9.fc6
dbus-1.0.0-7.el5
dbus-glib-0.70-5
device-mapper-1.02.24-1.el5
device-mapper-1.02.24-1.el5
device-mapper-event-1.02.24-1.el5
device-mapper-multipath-0.4.7-17.el5
dhclient-3.0.5-13.el5
dhcpv6-client-1.0.10-4.el5
diffutils-2.8.1-15.2.3.el5
dmidecode-2.7-1.28.2.el5
dmraid-1.0.0.rc13-9.el5
e2fsprogs-1.39-15.el5
e2fsprogs-libs-1.39-15.el5
e2fsprogs-libs-1.39-15.el5
ecryptfs-utils-41-1.el5
ecryptfs-utils-41-1.el5
ed-0.2-38.2.2
elfutils-libelf-0.125-3.el5
ethtool-5-1.el5
expat-1.95.8-8.2.1
file-4.17-13
filesystem-2.4.0-1.el5.centos
findutils-4.2.27-4.1
gawk-3.1.5-14.el5
gdbm-1.8.0-26.2.1
glib2-2.12.3-2.fc6
glibc-2.5-24
glibc-2.5-24
glibc-common-2.5-24
gpg-pubkey-e8562897-459f07a4
grep-2.5.1-54.2.el5
grub-0.97-13.2
gzip-1.3.5-10.el5.centos
hal-0.5.8.1-35.el5
hdparm-6.6-2
hwdata-0.213.6-1.el5
info-4.8-14.el5
initscripts-8.45.19.EL-1.el5.centos.1
iproute-2.6.18-7.el5
iptables-1.3.5-4.el5
iptables-ipv6-1.3.5-4.el5
iputils-20020927-43.el5
kbd-1.12-20.el5
kernel-2.6.18-92.el5
keyutils-libs-1.2-1.el5
keyutils-libs-1.2-1.el5
kpartx-0.4.7-17.el5
krb5-libs-1.6.1-25.el5
krb5-libs-1.6.1-25.el5
kudzu-1.2.57.1.17-1
less-394-5.el5
libacl-2.2.39-3.el5
libattr-2.4.32-1.1
libcap-1.10-26
libgcc-4.1.2-42.el5
libgcc-4.1.2-42.el5
libgcrypt-1.2.3-1
libgcrypt-1.2.3-1
libgpg-error-1.4-2
libgpg-error-1.4-2
libhugetlbfs-1.2-5.el5
libhugetlbfs-1.2-5.el5
libselinux-1.33.4-5.el5
libselinux-1.33.4-5.el5
libselinux-python-1.33.4-5.el5
libsemanage-1.9.1-3.el5
libsepol-1.15.2-1.el5
libsepol-1.15.2-1.el5
libstdc++-4.1.2-42.el5
libsysfs-2.0.0-6
libtermcap-2.0.8-46.1
libtermcap-2.0.8-46.1
libusb-0.1.12-5.1
libuser-0.54.7-2.el5.5
libvolume_id-095-14.16.el5
libxml2-2.6.26-2.1.2.1
libxml2-python-2.6.26-2.1.2.1
lvm2-2.02.32-4.el5
m2crypto-0.16-6.el5.2
MAKEDEV-3.23-1.2
mcstrans-0.2.7-1.el5
mingetty-1.07-5.2.2
mkinitrd-5.1.19.6-28
mkinitrd-5.1.19.6-28
mktemp-1.5-23.2.2
module-init-tools-3.3-0.pre3.1.37.el5
nash-5.1.19.6-28
ncurses-5.5-24.20060715
net-tools-1.60-78.el5
newt-0.52.2-10.el5
nspr-4.7.0.99.2-1.el5
nss-3.11.99.5-2.el5.centos
openldap-2.3.27-8.el5_1.3
openssh-4.3p2-26.el5
openssh-clients-4.3p2-26.el5
openssh-server-4.3p2-26.el5
openssl-0.9.8b-10.el5
openssl-0.9.8b-10.el5
pam-0.99.6.2-3.27.el5
pam-0.99.6.2-3.27.el5
passwd-0.73-1
pciutils-2.2.3-5
pcre-6.6-2.el5_1.7
pm-utils-0.99.3-6.el5.centos.19
policycoreutils-1.33.12-14.el5
popt-1.10.2-48.el5
prelink-0.3.9-2.1
procps-3.2.7-9.el5
psmisc-22.2-6
python-2.4.3-21.el5
python-elementtree-1.2.6-5
python-iniparse-0.2.3-4.el5
python-sqlite-1.1.7-1.2.1
python-urlgrabber-3.1.0-2
readline-5.1-1.1
readline-5.1-1.1
redhat-logos-4.9.99-8.el5.centos
rhpl-0.194.1-1
rootfiles-8.1-1.1.1
rpm-4.4.2-48.el5
rpm-libs-4.4.2-48.el5
rpm-python-4.4.2-48.el5
sed-4.1.5-5.fc6
selinux-policy-2.4.6-137.el5
selinux-policy-targeted-2.4.6-137.el5
setools-3.0-3.el5
setserial-2.17-19.2.2
setup-2.5.58-1.el5
shadow-utils-4.0.17-13.el5
slang-2.0.6-4.el5
sqlite-3.3.6-2
sysfsutils-2.0.0-6
sysklogd-1.4.1-44.el5
system-config-securitylevel-tui-1.6.29.1-2.1.el5
SysVinit-2.86-14
tar-1.15.1-23.0.1.el5
tcl-8.4.13-3.fc6
tcp_wrappers-7.6-40.4.el5
termcap-5.5-1.20060701.1
tzdata-2007k-2.el5
udev-095-14.16.el5
udftools-1.0.0b3-0.1.el5
usermode-1.88-3.el5.1
util-linux-2.13-0.47.el5
vim-minimal-7.0.109-3.el5.3
wireless-tools-28-2.el5
yum-3.2.8-9.el5.centos.1
yum-metadata-parser-1.1.2-2.el5
zlib-1.2.3-3
zlib-1.2.3-3

[Ned Slider]

It was decided at the last minute to add yum-fastestmirror as a dependency for yum as it enhances most users experience. I'll look into this though as perhaps the single CD install wasn't looked into thoroughly. It's not actually an officially supported install method, more of a workaround for those wanting a single server CD install media.

...and the reason it doesn't break a minimal install from CD1 is that the dependency for yum-fastestmirror was added to the latest version of yum in updates. The dependency is not present on the version of yum on the 5.2 ISO images. So, doing a minimal install from CD will give you a working yum, then performing a yum update will update yum from the updates repo and also add yum-fastestmirror as a newly added dependency.

Hope that makes sense

BTW, for version 6 we are considering making other plugins the default such as yum-priorities by adding them as a direct dependency to yum. That way we can ship with yum-priorities enabled so that additional 3rd party repos (RPMForge, ATrpms etc) don't "upgrade" core packages from base or updates. This was considered too much of a change to the current behaviour to get added to a minor release version but seems a sensible addition as it is the recommended default configuration anyway so means one less thing to manually configure after installation.

Ned

[Carlwill]

Ned - thanks for all the help and support. I was finally able to get a minimal install using RHEL 5.2 disk 1. The minimal install was fine and worked great however I am now having some issues with packages.

I imported dag wieers rpm repository to my RHEL 5.2 install and it appears to be working however this machine is going to be a DoD email server and the latest version of Postfix MTA available when I search is at least two years old:

[root@email ~]# yum info postfix
Loading "security" plugin
Loading "rhnplugin" plugin
rhel-x86_64-server-5      100% |=========================| 1.4 kB    00:00     
Available Packages
Name   : postfix
Arch   : x86_64
Epoch  : 2
Version: 2.3.3
Release: 2
Size   : 3.7 M
Repo   : rhel-x86_64-server-5
Summary: Postfix Mail Transport Agent

Description:
Postfix is a Mail Transport Agent (MTA), supporting LDAP, SMTP AUTH (SASL),
TLS

It appears that I am not pulling the Postfix rpm from dags. I would assume dags has a more recent 2.5 release however I don't know how to search dags or force yum to use dags rather than RHEL repos.

Can you please help? The U.S. DoD will not allow me to put a production email server in place with v2.3.

[Ned Slider]

Can you please help? The U.S. DoD will not allow me to put a production email server in place with v2.3.

Why not? Do they not understand the concept of backporting in RHEL?

I'm not aware of a later RPM in any of the repos for postfix, but that's not to say one doesn't exist.

If you have yum-priorities set up then yum will not allow you to replace any core packages with later versions from 3rd party repos. The way around this would be to temporarily disable yum-priorities, manually update the package you want (eg, 'yum update postfix'), and then re-enable yum-priorities, but this is really NOT the recommended course of action as you won't get any updates to those packages once you re-enable yum-priorities.

The whole point about an Enterprise OS such as RHEL is that it provides stability and long-term security support. The DoD even helped develop SELinux in RHEL so I find it very hard to believe that they would allow you to deploy a RHEL system but won't allow you to deploy the package versions that it ships by default. I think someone must have their wires crossed.