30 October 2005



This page shows how to convert from using wbel linux updates to CentOS of the same version. The advantages are faster update releases and a larger number and faster speed of download mirror sites. It is essentially a snapshot of the above URL, and related comments on that page. Just in case the page dies and I need it. Please visit the link above for a better view of the original contents, complete with all links and details.


How do I migrate a system from WBEL (White Box Enterprise Linux) to CentOS?

Note: This process has been tested and reviewed on i686 platforms. I'm looking for a x86_64 tester and someone who wants to try on a i586 class system. {I tested it with x86_64 and i586, both worked ok (hughesjr)} It also works to move from RHEL-3 or Taolinux-1.0 to CentOS-3.

Migrating from WBEL-3 is a simple process. The procedures here are designed to laterally move your system from WBEL-3 to CentOS 3. The immediate benefits are numerous; timely updates of RHEL errata, developers are reachable, and active community support.

Each step below should be run as root and should be entered as a single command in a terminal window. Dynamically sized browser windows may wrap lines.

1) yum features a "clean" option that will clean up various things in the yum cache directory. This command is optional, but recommended.

Optionally Execute: yum clean

2) This step install the CentOS package signing key. To verify the authenticity of the CentOS 3 package signing key please see this FAQ item.

Execute: rpm --import http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-3

3) This step installs the CentOS specific -release file; this obsoletes the package whitebox-release. (The whitebox-release package is automatically removed, so you need not concern yourself with it's removal).

Execute: rpm -Uvh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/3/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/centos-release-3-5.3.i386.rpm


Quote:

Note: Substitute x86_64 for i386 in the above statement to upgrade an x86_64 arch machine



4) This step installs the CentOS version of yum and a suitable yum.conf file.

Execute: rpm -Uvh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/3/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/yum-2.0.8-1.centos.7.noarch.rpm

rpm -Uvh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/3/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/centos-yumcache-3.1-0.20050526.3.noarch.rpm

rpm -Uvh http://mirror.centos.org/centos/3/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/centos-yumconf-1-11.noarch.rpm


Quote:

Note: in steps 3 and 4, the version numbers can change for the packages yum, centos-yumconf, centos-yumcache, and centos-release ... so open your web browser to http://mirror.centos.org/centos/3/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/ and find the packages yum, centos-yumconf, centos-yumcache, and centos-release for the latest version information if the link doesn't work.



5) Depending on the version of your WBEL install, your existing yum.conf may have been moved to /etc/yum.conf-SAVE and the CentOS yum.conf placed in /etc or the CentOS specific yum.conf was installed as etc/yum.conf.rpmnew and your yum.conf was unaltered. If your original yum.conf file was NOT moved save your current yum.conf and replace it with the freshly installed CentOS yum.conf. For now just to get your system working with the default CentOS yum.conf. The following steps will get the CentOS yum.conf accessible by yum.

If Necessary:
cd /etc
mv yum.conf yum.conf.mysaved
cp yum.conf.rpmnew yum.conf
cd -

6) To verify that your yum.conf file is accurate and to see what packages yum wants to upgrade we strongly encourage you to use yum's list updates feature to display it's intentions before attempting to upgrade your system. NOTE: Version 2.0.x of yum will download many package headers as part of the update process. Yum is not downloading each package, so do not be alarmed by the amount of screen traffic yum is generating.

Optionally Execute: yum list updates

Execute: yum update

7) At this point your box is upgraded. A reboot is suggested (to verify the reboot process works and to use any new kernel that was installed). If you were previously using a custom yum.conf file you will want to add your custimization back to the current CentOs /etc/yum.conf file.

Performing this process will not remove or upgrade any packages where CentOS and Whitebox share the same version number. This allows you to "convert" your box to CentOS and subsequently use CentOS repositories for updates, etc.

We also recommend that you join the CentOS discussion and information mailing list.

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Comments:-


Confirmation of steps
Just to confirm that these steps work - I have tested and moved a bunch of live production servers from wbel to Centos using these steps.

Another thing that you might want to keep in mind is that third part repositories that worked for WBEL will continue to work for Centos ( Dag, Kde-Redhat etc ) - however you will need to re-add them to the /etc/yum.conf file,

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using up2date after the migration
Once the above mentioned Migration has run through you will need to replace the WhiteBox up2date with the Centos up2date systems ( they both use different setups ).

On a non-GUI machine the commands to achieve this replacement use these commands :
rpm -e up2date firstboot
yum install up2date

On a GUI based machine
rpm -e up2date up2date-gnome rhn-applet firstboot
yum install up2date up2date-gnome rhn-applet

( in most cases firstboot can be left out since its not going to be run anymore )

If you have problems - Ask on IRC

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Migration to 3.4
I successfully used the above procedure to upgrade my WBEL 3 RS1 to CentOS 3.4, with the below modifications.

Step 3: Changed the url in the rpm command to use the 3.4 release package from -> http://mirror.centos.org/centos/3.4/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/centos-release-3-4.2.i386.rpm

Step 4: Changed the url in the rpm command to use yum from the 3.4 distro -> http://mirror.centos.org/centos/3.4/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/yum-2.0.8-1.centos.7.noarch.rpm

I also used the steps to reinstall up2date as suggested by z00dax in his comment.

Everything works great. And now I have timely updates.

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Dealing with unwriteable filesystems
When upgrading from WBEL I ran into an issue with an unwritable NFS mount in /usr/local and the filesystem rpm, the second command shows how to exclude a path while manually installing so rpm doesn't barf on it.

[root@hiddenvalley RPMS]# rpm -Uvh filesystem-2.2.1-3.centos.1.i386.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:filesystem ########################################### [100%]
error: unpacking of archive failed on file /usr/local: cpio: chown failed - Operation not permitted

[root@hiddenvalley RPMS]# rpm -Uvh --excludepath /usr/local filesystem-2.2.1-3.centos.1.i386.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:filesystem ########################################### [100%]

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Incorrect URLs for keys above!
The above article has the incorrect URL in step 2. The article currently says:

>>>
2) This step install the CentOS package signing key. To verify the authenticity of the CentOS 3 package signing key please see this FAQ item.

Execute: rpm --import http://mirror.centos.org/centos-3/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-3
<<<

However, the correct URL for the CentOS-3 key is http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-3 .

Therefore, the correct command is:

rpm --import http://mirror.centos.org/centos/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-3

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29 October 2005

Here is why server 2003 NTP agent w32tm doesn't work as expected.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;875424

09 October 2005

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