Setting up Redhat Linux 6.2 (zoot)

this is not RHEL…

Introduction

this guide covers various ways to run RH62 nowadays

was originally tested on vmware server – many years before
bare-metal (old machine preferred) – 2019/20
XEN/HVM mode – 2019/20
XEN/PV mode (with a recent kernel, that is, yes, it is possible indeed) – 2019/20

Download

Get it from there

ftp://archive.download.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/6.2/en/iso/i386/

ftp://archive.download.redhat.com:/pub/redhat/linux/updates/6.2/en/os/

Note there’s also a vmware appliance by torrent: http://www.lxpro.com/vmware/readme.txt

Bare-metal specifics

you might encounter this error during the the installation

Exception Occurred:
Traceback (innermost last):
File "/usr/bin/anaconda.real", line 342, in ?
     intfirun (todo.test = test)
[...]

that’s because Redhat 6.2 doesn’t support the Pentium 4 and recent AMD (here Phenom II) processors, even as vmware server 1.x or XEN/HVM guest. either install the guest on a CPU that won’t crash it (works e.g. with Intel Core 2 Duo) or prepare an alternate ISO image as follows

mkdir zoot-i386/
mount -o loop zoot-i386.iso zoot-i386/
cp -R zoot-i386/ zoot-rpmrcfix/
cd zoot-rpmrcfix/
cd RedHat/instimage/usr/lib/rpm/
mv rpmrc rpmrc.dist
sed 's/i786/i?86/g' rpmrc.dist > rpmrc
ls -l rpmrc*
cd ../../../../../
mkisofs -J -r -b images/boot.img -o ../zoot-rpmrcfix.iso .
cd ../
umount zoot-i386/
rmdir zoot-i386/

in that case you would also have to add --ignorearch arfterwards.

another way to see the (apparently same) error has been

File "/usr/bin/anaconda", line 342, in ? Intf.ru n(todo, test=test)

you could otherwise also use bootnet.img and proceed with an PXE installation

cd /data/tftpboot/ISO-IMAGES/obsolete/zoot-rpmrcfix/RedHat/base/
gzip -d < hdstg2.img > hdstg2.img.unzip
mkdir lala
mount -o loop,rw hdstg2.img.unzip lala  

mv ./usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc ./usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc.dist
sed 's/i786/i?86/g' ./usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc.dist > ./usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc
cd ../

umount lala/
rmdir lala/
gzip -9 -c < hdstg2.img.unzip > hdstg2.img

Installation

To install with text mode, enter this at the CDrom bootloader prompt,

text

choose keymap latin-1 unless you’re using an XEN-HVM and accessing the console through VNC in which cas you should use us even for non english keyboards

English

fr-latin-1

Install custom system

fdisk
/dev/sda - edit
  o
  n p 1 (default) +100M (/boot)
  (toggle bootable flag on)
  n p 2 (default) +1024M (swap)
  t 2 82
  n p 3 (default) +7000M (/)
  n p 4 (default) (default)
  w

then Disk Druid permits you to define the mount points. choose linear sector addresses instead of sector/head/cylinder addresses (not recommended for large disks). packages required for Oracle will be installed later.

uncheck lilo configuration > use linear mode

hostname : oracle8i

hardware clock is set to UTC

skip the user creation step (just check OK while the fields are empty)

package group selection: uncheck everything

XEN/HVM specifics

getting the noapic issue ==> stop at the lilo prompt and add noapic as argument

Network

nothing special here – as usual, just like on RHELs

cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/

vi ifcfg-eth0

DEVICE=eth0
IPADDR=x.x.x.x
PREFIX=24
ONBOOT=yes

cd /etc/sysconfig/network

    NETWORKING=yes
    GATEWAY=x.x.x.x

Post-installation

First, we need a remote shell

cd /mnt/
mount cdrom/
cd cdrom/Redhat/RPMS/
rpm -ivh \
inetd... \
tcp_wrappers... \
rsh-0... \
rsh-server...

enable the inet daemon

cd /etc/
ln -s rc.d/init.d
init.d/inet start

create some user to connect through telnet (root is always denied)

useradd -g users -m USERNAME
passwd USERNAME

now connect through rlogin (e.g. with PuTTY) as user and switch to root

su -

install a few other packages (wu-ftpd iputils screen) and unmount the cdrom

cd /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS/
rpm -ivh \
wu-ftpd-2.6.0-3.i386.rpm \
perl-5.00503-10.i386.rpm \
tcsh-6.09-4.i386.rpm \
iputils-20000121-2.i386.rpm \
screen-3.9.5-4.i386.rpm \
portmap-4.0-19.i386.rpm \
nfs-utils-0.1.6-2.i386.rpm \
traceroute-1.4a5-18.i386.rpm \
ncftp-3.0beta21-4.i386.rpm \
ftp-0.16-3.i386.rpm \
fwhois-1.00-12.i386.rpm \
unzip-5.40-2.i386.rpm \
lynx-2.8.3-2.i386.rpm \
indexhtml-6.2-1.noarch.rpm \
mc-4.5.42-10.i386.rpm

#telnet-0.16-6.i386.rpm

disable the other and un-needed daemons

cd /etc/
mv inetd.conf inetd.conf.dist
sed '/^#/d; /^$/d' inetd.conf.dist > inetd.conf
vi inetd.conf

...REMOVE THE OTHER LINES...

#telnet  stream  tcp     nowait  root    /usr/sbin/tcpd  in.telnetd
#shell   stream  tcp     nowait  root    /usr/sbin/tcpd  in.rshd
#finger  stream  tcp     nowait  nobody  /usr/sbin/tcpd  in.fingerd

ftp     stream  tcp     nowait  root    /usr/sbin/tcpd  in.ftpd -l -a
login   stream  tcp     nowait  root    /usr/sbin/tcpd  in.rlogind

rc.d/init.d/inet restart
#service inet restart

note. rlogin for remote logins is needed while rsh for remote program execution isn’t needed here.

disable yet other un-necessary daemons

chkconfig atd off
service atd stop

XEN/PV specifics

if running RH62 as a PV guest, point to XEN guest’s console manually

vi /etc/inittab

c1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --noclear hvc0

Optimization and configuration

eventually proceed with your usual system preparation. here’s an example.

configure syslog

cd /etc/
mv syslog.conf syslog.conf.dist
cat > syslog.conf <<EOF9
*.* -/var/log/messages
EOF9
grep 503 /etc/group
echo 'wheel:x:503:oracle' >> /etc/group
chown root:wheel /var/log/messages
chmod 640 /var/log/messages
/etc/rc.d/init.d/syslog restart
sleep 1; logger check
tail /var/log/messages

tune your environment

cd /etc/
vi bashrc

PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin\
:$HOME/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
export PATH

short=`hostname -s`
[ $USER = root ] && PS1='$short# ' || PS1='$short> '

alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias rm='rm -i'
alias ll='ls -alkF'

source bashrc

finish up the network configuration

cd /etc
vi hosts

127.0.0.1   localhost.localdomain localhost
YOUR_IP     oracle8i
GW_IP           gw

configure GNU/screen

cd /etc/
mv screenrc screenrc.dist
vi screenrc

startup_message off
caption always
bindkey ^[, prev
bindkey ^[; next

and then

cd ~/
mv .screenrc .screenrc.dist
vi .screenrc

screen -t log 0 tail -n 50 -f /var/log/messages

create file index

updatedb

eventually install the 6.2 updates

#rpm -Uvh */*.rpm

Ready to go

running zoot

ps auxfw

looks like you’re ready to install Oracle 8i!

Additional notes

X11

If you need to enable a full X11 environment (not just a client, but a full server), this might help

rpm -ivh \
wmconfig... \
fvwm2... \
fvwm2-icons... \
audiofile... \
esound... \
gnome-libs... \
gtk+... \
gnome-audio... \
ORBit... \
imlib... \
libjpeg-6b... \
libpng... \
libtiff... \
libgr-progs... \
libungif... \
libgr

Troubleshooting

sata vs ide

Jan 17 17:05:21 zoot kernel: hde: status timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy } 
Jan 17 17:05:21 zoot kernel: hde: no DRQ after issuing WRITE 
Jan 17 17:05:22 zoot kernel: ide2: reset: success