RedHat Linux 7.2 or latest release?

[Rick Stevens]

Dan_MailLists wrote:
> Bob McClure, Jr wrote -
> 
>>This may well not answer your question.  I'd be very hesitant to pay
>>someone for server space on a machine running a version that is
>>several revs past support.  I wouldn't mind too much if they were
>>running RH 9 (with all updates) as it was EOLed less than a month ago,
>>but RH 7.2 is three revs behind that.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for the comment Bob, it's a good point, but too late to change hosts.
> I've just phoned their tech support and they tell me that as we've got a
> dedicated server we can install anything we want on it, but that it comes
> with 7.2 by default.
> As I just want this as a webserver, using PHP4 and MySQL, is 7.2 going to be
> enough can anyone tell me?

It's enough, but it's not supported by Red Hat anymore.  Instead, it's
supported by the Fedora group's "Legacy" project.  How much longer it
will be supported is hard to say.  7.2 is almost three years old.

If you decide to use 7.2, make sure you patch it to the current levels.
The Fedora Legacy project webpage

	http://www.fedoralegacy.org/

has a list of mirrors that hold all of the current patches.  You can
download them to a scratch directory on the server, then "cd" into that
directory and "rpm -Fvh *.rpm".  You may have to resolve some weird
conflicts manually and you do NOT want to do the kernel updates that
way.  Ideally, download everything EXCEPT the kernel RPMs and do what
I said above.  Then manually download the latest kernel and install that
via "rpm -ivh kernel-whatever.rpm" (note the "-ivh" RATHER than the
"-Fvh").

As to the conflicts, you have to analyze what they are.  You will either
do an "rpm -Fvh --force" or "rpm -Fvh --nodeps" to get past those.

> Or if not, what are people's thoughts on me upgrading the Linux to say v9?
> Knowing how huge those OS files are I can't quite see how that's going to
> work without physical access to the server?

I've been upgrading my mail systems to Fedora Core 1.  It's quite stable
and has worked well for me.

Upgrading a machine without physical access is not trivial.  You can
download the .iso images to the system, then build a boot floppy to do
a disk-based install.  You will have to have your ISP manually put in
the floppy and you'll need some sort of console access via a serial port
or a KVM.  As I said, it ain't easy.

> 
> ---------
> 
>>On Wed, May 19, 2004 at 11:10:09AM +0200, Dan_MailLists wrote:
>>
>>>Hi all,
>>>
>>>I'm new to both Linux and this list.
>>>
>>>I'm building a site (or will be shortly) on a managed server that has
> 
> Red Hat Linux 7.2 installed. I want to set up a development server here so I
> can also work locally on a test platform. The test platform is a PentiumIII
> 500, which will be partitioned to share the HD between Win98 and this Linux,
> in case that matters.
> 
>>>The website will include the use of PHP4, MySQL3.23, cron and some third
> 
> party newsletter software as yet unchosen.
> 
>>>I've never installed Linux before, and haven't used it much either.
>>>
>>>My question is - should I install 7.2 here, or should I just get the
> 
> latest release? What would the differences be, and do they matter?
> 
>>>Thanks for any help you can give,
>>>Dan Searle.
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-                 IGNORE that man behind the keyboard!               -
-                                                - The Wizard of OS  -
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