F-10 installs -

[Bill Davidsen]

Bob Goodwin wrote:
> 
> In the near future I intend to replace Fedora 9 with 10.  My bandwidth 
> allotment is limited by the satellite provider I use so I have been 
> installing the "Live CD" version and adding to that with yum.  I rarely 
> use the Gnome desktop beyond the initial install, replacing that with 
> XFCE which works best for me.  However it requires a lot of initial 
> configuration to create what I want.  That can take a week or more to 
> get everything "just right."
> 
> But then I have a second computer to deal with, similar to this one 
> which will also need the same configuration.  I can easily transfer 
> files between them but it's still a lot of work and takes nearly as much 
> time as the first one.  There's also a third ...
> 
> It seems I must be doing something wrong?  Can anyone suggest the 
> optimum approach?  I ideally I should be able to simply copy directories 
> between boxes/users it seems.
> 
I lack the ego to call this the optimum approach, but what I do with every new 
RH distro is to change the yum.conf to leave the rpms on /var/cache/yum. I have 
a pair of scripts, one mounts the "master" cache copy on /mnt/cache, and makes a 
symbolic link in /var/cache/yum to the saved RPMs. Then I do an upgrade. Last, I 
run the other script which copies the newly downloaded RPMs with rsync (using 
--safe-links) back to the master.

When I do a new install, I use the original 1st install DVD, then mount the 
master and run "yum upgrade" to get up to date. The database is pulled off the 
net so I stay current, but no RPM is downloaded more than once.

This avoids the drawbacks of keeping your own copy of the repo, having to get 
stuff you don't use, and having to keep it current. If what I have isn't current 
  the current RPM is access on the network, and I never pull something I haven't 
used on some machine in the group.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot