The CentOS team announced CentOS 5.5. Major changes in CentOS 5.5 compared to CentOS 5.4 include:

OpenOffice.org Update to version 3.1.1
Samba3x in version 3.3.8
PostgreSQL84 in version 8.4
Freeradius2

The latter three aren’t installed by default, but they can be used to upgrade from the still included older versions of these packages.

Other upgrades include newer version of the wireless drivers suite, including newer versions of the ath9k driver and the iwlwifi drivers. The GNU Debugger gdb, Valgrind and SystemTap also have been updated.

Links for download: i386 | x86_64

Running dstat normally gives you something like this :

# dstat --nocolor
----total-cpu-usage---- -dsk/total- -net/total- ---paging-- ---system--
usr sys idl wai hiq siq| read  writ| recv  send|  in   out | int   csw
  3   0  97   0   0   0| 820k  456k|   0     0 | 800B  866B|1054   255

And you can split the disk metrics up based on devices using something like this :

# dstat -D sda,sdb,total --nocolor
----total-cpu-usage---- --dsk/sda-- --dsk/sdb-- -dsk/total- -net/total- ---paging-- ---system--
usr sys idl wai hiq siq| read  writ: read  writ: read  writ| recv  send|  in   out | int   csw
  1   1  97   0   0   0| 176k   77k:  30k  162k: 411k  478k|   0     0 |3608B 4005B|1447  1458
 33   2  63   0   1   2|   0     0 :   0   216k:   0   432k|2470k 1611k|   0     0 |2915  6967
 31   2  65   0   1   1|   0     0 :   0     0 :   0     0 |2210k 1338k|   0     0 |2866  6051

But you can also get deeper level device names / nodes to measure – which is required in many cases if you have drivers for storage creating nodes further down the tree than /dev. Eg. I have a setup where there are four mysql instances running, each with its own dedicated storage :

# mount | grep srv
/dev/cciss/c0d1 on /var/lib/mysql/node1 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/cciss/c0d2 on /var/lib/mysql/node2 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/cciss/c0d3 on /var/lib/mysql/node3 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/cciss/c0d4 on /var/lib/mysql/node4 type ext3 (rw)
/dev/cciss/c0d5 on /srv/wal type ext3 (rw)

so in this case, to get dstat reporting working you need to mention just the component level, like this :

# dstat -D cciss/c0d1,cciss/c0d2,cciss/c0d3 --nocolor
----total-cpu-usage---- dsk/cciss/c dsk/cciss/c dsk/cciss/c -net/total- ---paging-- ---system--
usr sys idl wai hiq siq| read  writ: read  writ: read  writ| recv  send|  in   out | int   csw
  3   0  97   0   0   0| 209k   89k: 201k   86k: 204k   85k|   0     0 | 799B  865B|1055   256
 90   1   8   1   0   0|3196k   68k: 764k    0 : 816k   24k|1067k 1650k|   0     0 |1999   609
 95   1   3   1   0   0|2548k    0 :   0  4084k:2448k 5700k| 660k  791k|   0     0 |1611   571
 96   1   2   1   0   0|2628k    0 : 808k    0 :1620k    0 | 352k  798k|   0     0 |1835  1605

And you get the details, for each block device.

You want to use Linux and OpenSSH to automize your tasks. Therefore you need an automatic login from host A / user a to Host B / user b. You don’t want to enter any passwords, because you want to call ssh from a within a shell script.

How to do it

First log in on A as user a and generate a pair of authentication keys. Do not enter a passphrase:

a@A:~> ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/a/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory '/home/a/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/a/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/a/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
3e:4f:05:79:3a:9f:96:7c:3b:ad:e9:58:37:bc:37:e4 a@A

Now use ssh to create a directory ~/.ssh as user b on B. (The directory may already exist, which is fine):

a@A:~> ssh b@B mkdir -p .ssh
b@B's password:

Finally append a’s new public key to b@B:.ssh/authorized_keys and enter b’s password one last time:

a@A:~> cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh b@B 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys'
b@B's password:

From now on you can log into B as b from A as a without password:

a@A:~> ssh b@B hostname
B

A note from one of our readers: Depending on your version of SSH you might also have to do the following changes:

• Put the public key in .ssh/authorized_keys2
• Change the permissions of .ssh to 700
• Change the permissions of .ssh/authorized_keys2 to 640

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS-5.3 for the i386 and x86_64 Architectures.

CentOS-5.3 is based on the upstream release EL 5.3.0, and includes packages from all variants including Server and Client. All upstream repositories have been combined into one, to make it easier for end users to work with. And the option to further enable external repositories at install time is now available in the installer.

This is just an announcement email, not the release notes. The Release Notes for CentOS-5.3 can be found on-line at : http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.3 and everyone is encouraged to look through them once. Also worth browsing through at the CentOS FAQ’s at http://wiki.centos.org/FAQ

+++++++++++++++++++++++
ArtWork update:

CentOS-5.3 brings in a completely new artwork stack. A big thanks to Alain Reguera Delgado, Ralph Angenendt, Marcus Moeller and everyone on the Artwork SIG for bringing us the best, most comprehensive artwork set yet. Also a big thanks to all the translation teams for their contributions to the installer artwork.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Contrib repos are back:

Given the widespread requests for user contributed packages directly being hosted within the centos repositories, the contribs repository is now back with CentOS-5.3. There are no packages yet, but over the next few weeks we hope to have a policy and process in place that allows users to submit and manage packages in the contrib repo.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Upgrading from CentOS-5.2 ( or CentOS-5.0 / 5.1 ):

If you are already running CentOS-5.2 or an older CentOS-5 distro, all you need to do is update your machine via yum by running :

‘yum update’

Running ‘yum list updates’ before doing the update is recommended, so you can get a list of packages that are going to be updated. To check you are indeed on CentOS-5.3, run : ‘rpm -q centos-release’ and that should return: ‘centos-release-5-3.el5.centos.1′

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Upgrading from CentOS-2.1 or CentOS-3.x or CentOS-4.x:

The only recommended way to update from an earlier version of CentOS is to download and run a fresh install. In some cases, running the installer with the ‘upgradeany’ option might also achieve the desired results, however you are strongly recommended to look at the CentOS Wiki where hints and notes about potential upgrade paths from CentOS-4/3/2.1 to CentOS-5 are provided.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Downloading CentOS-5.3 for new installs:

When possible, consider using torrents to run the downloads. Not only does it help the community and keeps mirrors from running up high bandwidth bills, in most case you will find its also the fastest means to download the distro. There are present over a thousand people already seeding CentOS-5.3 and its possible to get upto 100mbps downloads via
these torrents.

– Via BitTorrent :
CD:
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.3/isos/i386/CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-1to6.torrent
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.3/isos/x86_64/CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-1to7.torrent

DVD:
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.3/isos/i386/CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-DVD.torrent
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5.3/isos/x86_64/CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-DVD.torrent

– Via direct download:
Due to bandwidth considerations the CentOS Project does not publish ISOS directly from our network machines. However direct downloads are available from external mirrors over http, ftp and rsync, and a geoip based list is available at http://isoredirect.centos.org/centos/5/isos/ to give you the best predictable match ( and only lists mirrors that are
updated already, so you dont need to waste time looking for a sync’d mirror )

Some mirrors also publish DVD images that can be downloaded directly. Refer to the mirrors list page at http://www.centos.org/mirrors for more details Mirrors that offer DVD’s are clearly marked on the page.

sha1sum for these ISOS:

i386:
4b454d76d06daa0b1772115e9b95c9465a4cecb0 CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-1of6.iso
0da3292ea1d90639714a5e7d77812568bc01ec05 CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-2of6.iso
77e867eb736b58f31cdd25c4835643ab795979e2 CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-3of6.iso
949ee93440e736c8414fb8b571178970a31e6675 CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-4of6.iso
5eafdea33c18f623bb9299ae624b8c8a12132bfa CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-5of6.iso
90ae5387a38f8ec805d877cc5525ae8dedc7f810 CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-6of6.iso
b7f85a3a493e3051e50515ef881214929c88a5f3 CentOS-5.3-i386-bin-DVD.iso
a0c640ae0c68cc0d9558cf4f8855f24671b3dadb CentOS-5.3-i386-netinstall.iso

x86_64:
7327174dc0cbb6531bc0e2f26e24788251717e91 CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-1of7.iso
d060ed2826a4c212eebf5e3a825ce75e77cb44e0 CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-2of7.iso
a0b7471ec6b742c962cc06b69624b0746025005f CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-3of7.iso
fe4106322d6b08344e82df8904142664a8a82522 CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-4of7.iso
8cb5539fa4241bc5d23798a3e2721b2ebd3b18fe CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-5of7.iso
8a8f32888279f701e15162dec6f52b5f5fb5effc CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-6of7.iso
f053b05ea8576ea7d72116fa246f914086238ca9 CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-7of7.iso
f8ca12b4acc714f4e4a21f3f35af083952ab46e0 CentOS-5.3-x86_64-bin-DVD.iso
e971bd1677622708348b8a65264ec360a1cc0196 CentOS-5.3-x86_64-netinstall.iso

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Pending CentOS-5.3 Updates and src.rpm’s

Updates have been issued from upstream since they released 5.3, a bulk of these updates are already released into CentOS-5.3 and are available immediately. All pending updates will be released within the next 48 hrs. To keep the initial release size smaller, the src.rpm’s are also going to be slowly released into the mirrors over the next 48 hrs along with debuginfo packages.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Release Notes:

The distro release notes are only available online at http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.3 The release notes include important changelog info as well as notes about the installer and outcomes from test situations which the centos-qa team worked through. Its considered essential reading.

Upstream release notes are available in the NOTES/ directory of the install media. These include release specific technologies, new features in the distro and other misc infomation that can help you better utilise the distro.

+++++++++++++++++++++++
Getting Help:

The best place to start when looking for help with CentOS is at the wiki ( http://wiki.centos.org/GettingHelp ) which lists various options and communities who might be able to help. If you think there is a bug in the system, do report it at http://bugs.centos.org/ – but keep in mind that the bugs system is *not* a support mechanism.

Some Friendly URL’s :
http://www.centos.org/
http://wiki.centos.org/
http://lists.centos.org/
http://bugs.centos.org/
irc://#centos@irc.freenode.net

+++++++++++++++++++++++
A big thanks to everyone who contributed, including the translation teams, the qa team, the CentOS Developers and all the users out there. I would also like to thank all the users for their patience and help!

Enjoy this release, tell all your friends about it too.

–
Karanbir Singh
CentOS Project { http://www.centos.org/ }
irc: z00dax, #centos@irc.freenode.net

One of the thing that astonished me is the fact that (even if not written in Upstream RN) some drivers seem to have been updated. For example the sky2 module didn’t support the Marvel gigabit 88E8056 nic since 5.1 .. but .. :

[arrfab@waldorf ~]$ modinfo /lib/modules/2.6.18-92.1.22.el5/kernel/drivers/net/sky2.ko |grep alias|wc -l
29
[arrfab@waldorf ~]$ modinfo /lib/modules/2.6.18-128.el5/kernel/drivers/net/sky2.ko |grep alias|wc -l
30
Interesting , isn’t it ? (especially for people having that kind of low-level entry nic in their workstation ..)

Other interesting stuff is the newer scsi-target-utils (aka tgtadm/iScsi target) that now includes a config file and two helpers to setup a new iscsi lun easily (tgt-setup-lun and tgt-admin) .. of course there are other new good things so stay tuned for more informations and of course, don’t forget to read the Release Notes when they’ll be published !

Here is it, directly from Karanbir’s blog:

Its amazing how often this question gets asked. Often enough that I thought its worth blogging about. Anyway the short answer is – you dont really need any services running on the machine in order to boot it, login and be able to do things. You might need to start services on demand though, eg if you need a mysql server running, thats a service that needs running. However, its a good idea, imho, to have atleast these services enabled and running :

syslog
network
sshd


syslog: because its good to have logging on the machine, and network + sshd just to make sure you can get to the machine from a remote location, and you can run yum updates ( either local or remote ) with the network working.

If you are running with selinux, it might also be a good idea to have restorecond running, but look into some details, its not really *required* as such.

Updates on virtualization also sounds very cool, but linux still lacks good tools for provisioning and management. Any way i am planing to do run some tests when CentOS 5.3 comes out.

Here is it, straight from redhat :

We released the first glimpse into Red Hat Enterprise Linux5.3 with the availability of the5.3 Beta in October. Today, we’ve announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, delivered via Red Hat Network to customers with a Red Hat subscription.

A key benefit of a Red Hat subscription is that feature updates and fixes are incorporated into the base platform release in such a way that interfaces (APIs & ABIs) are held stable. You can adopt the latest open source capabilities without needing to recertify your hardware and applications. Today’s delivery of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3, with its wide range of new features, demonstrates our commitment to deliver value via your subscription.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux updates provide:

• Feature enhancements and stable new features
• Security hardening
• Consolidated bug fixes

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 Release Notes note over 150 updates and upgrades, but here are a few key highlights:

Virtualization enhancements: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 supports larger x86-64 systems. The number of supported physical CPUs is increased to 126, while maximum memory is increased to 1TB. Virtual server CPU and memory limits have been increased to 32 and 80GB respectively – far higher than competing virtualization products. Additionally the per-guest limits for disks and network interfaces have also been increased. The performance and range of paravirtualized device drivers has been increased, enabling ever more applications to be deployed on virtual servers with near bare-metal performance.

Next-generation hardware enablement: The soon-to-be-released Tylersberg/Nehalem platform is the next-generation of Intel x86-64 hardware. Support for the virtualization and performance features provided by this processor combined with numerous optimizations have already demonstrated exceptional performance over previous processor generations in internal Red Hat testing.

OpenJDK: Red Hat is taking a leadership position in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 by shipping the first productized implementation of OpenJDK. OpenJDK in 5.3 has passed the full Java SE 6 TCK and is compatible with all applications written for Java SE 6 and previous versions. With the integration of OpenJDK, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 is the the first enterprise-ready solution with a fully open source Java stack when combined with JBoss Enterprise Application Platform.

Systemtap: This is an application development tool targeted at dynamically allowing applications to be monitored and diagnosed. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 support for User Mode (i.e. application level) tracing and profiling is provided for the first time – adding to the Kernel Mode support that was provided in earlier releases. The operative word here being “dynamically,” as the key benefit of Systemtap is the ability, on-the-fly, to add instrumentation, probe points, and memory tracking to running applications. This is key to enable identification and resolution of issues in live environments. Extremely powerful — both for user and kernel space.

Power management: With “green IT” gaining increasing focus, we have been implementing a progression of power-saving enhancements in every update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 5.3 is no exception, with improved handling of low-level power management low-power sleep states.

Disk encryption: Critical for laptop use, but also becoming increasingly important in server deployments (due to concerns with hardware disposal at the end of its lifecycle), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 includes full support for encryption of storage, either at the block level or file system level. Installer enhancements enable encryption to be configured at installation time, and includes support for the root and swap devices.

Networking

• NetWorkManager and wpa_supplicant updates mean better wireless security support. NetworkManager has a whole host of updates listed, so loads of good things have been happening there.
• Updated driver support for a number of broadcom, forcedeth, ralink, and realtek cards made it into the kernel, so those of you in irc complaining that your nic wasn’t recognized should be happier after this.
• There are also a few improvements for intel networking, both wired and wireless, so that should give the intel crowd their feel-good too.

Storage

This is where things get interesting, so hang on.

• ext4 support is now included, so you can feel free to play with it. All accounts have it being pretty interesting.
• encrypted block devices are now supported in anaconda for direct install. Anyone with a laptop should be interested in this one. (This one is my personal favorite. A die-hard suse fan always rubs on this when we debate)
• There’s added support for IBM’s DS4xxx series disk systems in the dm_multipath package now. In theory this should rid us of the rdac driver update reboot hell. I’ll be testing this feature out tomorrow.
• 3ware and megaraid_sas also made the cut for driver updates. These two should have a fair bit of performance improvements to them.

One thing I’m still waiting to see sorted out is the httpd fiasco on x86_64. In previous releases, you could install both, but it would cause conflicts when run. RH says they fixed this by removing the x86_64 version of httpd from the x86_64 distro. I’m really hoping they mean that they’ve removed the x86 version from the x86_64 distro, and that the release notes just have a nice little heart-stopping typo. Anyone dealing with multi-arch issues might want to keep an eye on this one between visits to the therapist.

Update: Seems the httpd issue was for ppc, though the arch was not clearly spelled out in the release notes. Have a look at http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhelv5-list/2009-January/msg00098.html for information.

You can get the full reading on what’s coming from this url: http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Release_Notes/index.html

What features are you looking forward to the most with the new release? I’m curious to see which features people are most interested in using. Let me know in the comments below.

These tools include core development tools such as automake, gcc, perl, python, and debuggers:
=> flex
=> gcc
=> redhat-rpm-config
=> strace
=> rpm-build
=> make
=> pkgconfig
=> gettext
=> automake
=> strace64
=> gdb
=> bison
=> libtool
=> autoconf
=> gcc-c++
=> binutils and all dependencies.

The easy way to do that is opening terminal or ssh shell and  type in:

# yum groupinstall 'Development Tools'

Sample output:

Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.steadfast.net
 * updates: dist1.800hosting.com
 * addons: centos.mirrors.tds.net
 * extras: dist1.800hosting.com
Setting up Group Process
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.steadfast.net
 * updates: dist1.800hosting.com
 * addons: centos.mirrors.tds.net
 * extras: dist1.800hosting.com
Package make - 1:3.81-3.el5.i386 already installed and latest version
Package gettext - 0.14.6-4.el5.i386 already installed and latest version
Package binutils - 2.17.50.0.6-6.el5.i386 already installed and latest version
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package automake.noarch 0:1.9.6-2.1 set to be updated
---> Package frysk.i686 0:0.0.1.2008.03.19.rh1-1.el5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libgcj.so.7rh for package: frysk
--> Processing Dependency: glib-java >= 0.2.6 for package: frysk
---> Package autoconf.noarch 0:2.59-12 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: imake for package: autoconf
---> Package rcs.i386 0:5.7-30.1 set to be updated
---> Package strace.i386 0:4.5.16-1.el5.1 set to be updated
---> Package redhat-rpm-config.noarch 0:8.0.45-24.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils.i386 0:0.125-3.el5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libdw.so.1 for package: elfutils
...........
....
..
Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install    105 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)         

Total download size: 127 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/105): python-numeric-2 100% |=========================| 751 kB    00:12
(2/105): xorg-x11-fonts-b 100% |=========================| 3.7 MB    01:03
(3/105): pfmon-3.2-0.0609 100% |=========================| 656 kB    00:10
(4/105): automake14-1.4p6 100% |=========================| 205 kB    00:03
(5/105): libtool-1.5.22-6 100% |=========================| 680 kB    00:11
(6/105): systemtap-0.6.2- 100% |=========================| 1.3 MB    00:22

Now you can compile and use any application on system.

Networking

• NetWorkManager and wpa_supplicant updates mean better wireless security support. NetworkManager has a whole host of updates listed, so loads of good things have been happening there.
• Updated driver support for a number of broadcom, forcedeth, ralink, and realtek cards made it into the kernel, so those of you in irc complaining that your nic wasn’t recognized should be happier after this.
• There are also a few improvements for intel networking, both wired and wireless, so that should give the intel crowd their feel-good too.

Storage

This is where things get interesting, so hang on.

• ext4 support is now included, so you can feel free to play with it. All accounts have it being pretty interesting.
• encrypted block devices are now supported in anaconda for direct install. Anyone with a laptop should be interested in this one. (This one is my personal favorite. A die-hard suse fan always rubs on this when we debate)
• There’s added support for IBM’s DS4xxx series disk systems in the dm_multipath package now. In theory this should rid us of the rdac driver update reboot hell. I’ll be testing this feature out tomorrow.
• 3ware and megaraid_sas also made the cut for driver updates. These two should have a fair bit of performance improvements to them.

One thing I’m still waiting to see sorted out is the httpd fiasco on x86_64. In previous releases, you could install both, but it would cause conflicts when run. RH says they fixed this by removing the x86_64 version of httpd from the x86_64 distro. I’m really hoping they mean that they’ve removed the x86 version from the x86_64 distro, and that the release notes just have a nice little heart-stopping typo. Anyone dealing with multi-arch issues might want to keep an eye on this one between visits to the therapist.

Update: Seems the httpd issue was for ppc, though the arch was not clearly spelled out in the release notes. Have a look athttp://www.redhat.com/archives/rhelv5-list/2009-January/msg00098.html for information.

You can get the full reading on what’s coming from this url:  http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Release_Notes/index.html

What features are you looking forward to the most with the new release? I’m curious to see which features people are most interested in using. Let me know in the comments below.