Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with redhat

Can our MRI machine be converted to Windows XP?

humannaire — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:58:17 -0800

Does anyone have any experience with a Philips Marconi Eclipse 1.5 MRI scanner? Can it be run from a Windows-based machine? Presently, our Philips Marconi Eclipse 1.5 MRI scanner is operated using a workstation running Red Hat Linux, and VIA 2.0 Scan Suite software.

The lack of compatibilty with other essential sofwares has become burdensome. The hoops which must be jumped through have become detrimental to routine work patterns, and have doubled related ordinary workloads.

Understanding the "failings and limitations" [sic] of XP, what we want to do now is switch to a Windows XP system, with which the rest of the 20 machines at our office and ALL of our providers are currently using.

Suggestions? Advisements? Recommendations?

That Red Hat is awfully expensive!

Oktober — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:01:19 -0800

Is paying for a RHEL subscription worth it, or should we just go with CentOS? We're looking at moving our e-mail server to more-capable hardware, and would like to avoid paying $4k+ for a new Xserve, if at all possible. We're reasonably happy with our current package, Communigate, but it's severely hardware constrained now.

The only two applications that need to run on it are Communigate (which has ports for every OS under the sun) and Retrospect (our backup client, which has a Red Hat rpm).

Ideally, I'd get a cheap Quad-Core server from Dell, slap CentOS on it, installed our two applications, and call it a day. Still, I have nagging questions. Is paying for RHEL worth it? Can you continue updating your OS after your subscription expires? Is CentOS really 100% binary compatible with Red Hat?

Linux Filter: Calling out all Linux experts, searching for the best route to learn Linux!

wile e — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:19:17 -0800

Linux filter: Calling out all Linux experts. I need to learn administrative Linux in a rather short period. Looking for the best online resources, tutorials, cheat sheets, tips etc. I am a relative beginner as far as Linux goes. I have used the platform for various things, but never delved really deep into the command line control of it. With my new job, that is all about to change. I need to be very comfortable with the inner workings, understand most terminology and have an overall command of the CLI.

So I have done all the standard google searches, and have found quite a bit of quality resources. I am currently going through many of them, but I wanted to make sure that I have access to the absolute best material and find out if there is anything I am missing.

I am looking for online tutorials, video/audio tutorials, free sites, pay sites anything. I just want to maximize my learning process as I have a really short time period to truly understand everything. Think of me as a complete noob, as I want to go over even the basics just to make sure I fully comprehend everything.

As of right now, I have Fedora 9 on a bootable USB that I use as a personal testing ground. Plus beginning mid-week, I will have access to the Red Hat Enterprise testbed that I really need to have down pat.

Not sure if I'm giving enough information, so please ask away if I omitted anything.

Thanks to all that even bothered to read this!

VMWare: Web server on guest OS, accessed from Host?

weston — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:40:26 -0800

VMWare Fusion as dev server: How can I set things up so I can access a web server running under the guest OS (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5) from the host machine? Bonus points if it can be done without plugging into an ethernet network. I've got a web app that will eventually be deployed under Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, and the client sent me a VMWare image of the production machine so I could test in an environment as similar to theirs as possible (I usually just run the AMP stack under OS X, but they're using older versions of each piece of software, and are unlikely to upgrade soon because of some legacy apps, and we all know php installations vary wildly anyway, so this seems to make sense).

Since I've got VMWare Fusion, I figured this'd be a snap, but there appear to be two challenges:

1) Red Hat Enterprise Linux appears to be expecting an wired Ethernet connection by default. I'm primarily doing work on a MacBook Pro with connectivity done by WiFi. Having to plug in would suck... but this might be the part where getting WiFi to work under Linux would suck more.

2) I'm not sure what tack to take for the general network settings for VMWare (probably "Bridged" or "Host Only"?) and corresponding appropriate TCP/IP settings for the guest OS.

I'd love it if someone could post or point to a comprehensive explanation for making this work, but if you can help with either point #1 or point #2 (or offer any other advice), that'd be great too.

Thanks!

Why won't my Linux machine play nice?

sararah — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:51:51 -0800

Red Hat Linux won't correctly mount USB flash drive. Also cannot send email. (Although I can log into Gmail, just not send email, chat is also blocked.) FTP from Linux machine to other computers is ok, but we cannot FTP into the Linux machine from Mac or Windows. Are these problems related? Help? We are running the latest kernel of Red Hat 7, and we have also tried to boot into older kernels. I can usually figure out what is wrong with this machine, but we are stumped on this one. Several restarts have not fixed anything.

Network issues:
-Can log into Gmail, chat is blocked, can't send emails.
-Can FTP to two other machines running Irix (old school, I know)
-Cannot FTP to my Mac
-Cannot FTP from my Mac or PC's on the network, or it will connect and the transfer will time out.

USB issue:
-Do not have automount set up, but typing mount /mnt/flash in terminal window will sort of "fake mount" the flash drive and clicking on it shows files that are not actually on the drive or on a filesystem that is not accessible to Windows or Mac.

A quandry!

We have tried modifying fstab many times. Email has worked as recently as this weekend, although I have noticed the USB flash drive issue for a while now. We've also tried a few different flash drives, and they all do the same thing, we've even formatted one to see if there was some weird partition of the drive that Linux was accessing -- same thing, it puts the files in a weird place and then the PC can't see them.

(Disclaimer: I would say that I am above the average American's computer skills, and I'm reasonably adept at the command line, but I never do very complicated stuff with Linux/Unix other than simple tasks I do routinely for work. I am definitely not a programmer. Mainly the Linux machine runs a few weird programs and talks to the other computers that run Irix. )

There are no errors that the computer is giving during these processes, just timing out on emails/ftps and not showing files on the flash drive. Hopefully I've been descriptive enough here, let me know if you need more details. Thanks!

RAID 10 on RHEL 5

quasistoic — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:26:32 -0800

How did *you* achieve a software RAID 10 (or 1+0) setup on your RHEL5 (or 4) box? I've spent the last three days running down rabbit hole after rabbit hole trying to build a Centos 5 system with its root filesystem (/) on a nested software RAID 1+0 device.

Now I've given up and adopted a compromise, with / on a RAID 5 and other frequently used directories on a RAID 10 (not true nested raid, mind you, but the single-level version), but I know I'll get myself into this situation again, and I want to hear if anyone else has found a better way out.

Some of the snags I encountered:
* Disk Druid doesn't support raid "10" or nested levels of software raid (1+0, 0+1), and it won't recognize such filesystems if I configure them through the terminal.
* While I could configure nested levels of raid post-install with mdadm, I couldn't get any to be recognized on reboot.

My setup:
* Two 64-bit Intel processors
* Four 15K 74G scsi disks
* 4G RAM

How can I set up Bugzilla to receive bugs via email?

Deathalicious — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:46:51 -0800

How can I set up Bugzilla 3.0 to receive bugs via email? Yeah, I know, email_in.pl. But how. That is, how can I invoke email_in.pl -- how can I set it up so that something is actually being piped (or whatever) to email_in.pl whenever a message is sent to the correct bugzilla address? I assume I need to set up an MTA; how can I do this? I've scoured google and can't find any information on how to get the MTA set up, or even if Bugzilla is already set up to listen on a certain address, or anything. The documentation that comes with Bugzilla assumes that you somehow magically know how to pipe the email to Bugzilla. This is exactly what I don't know.

I'm running on a RedHat Linux box, and have root access so I can install whatever MTA runs your fancy.

If anyone out there has actually set this up, I desire your config files or whatever.

Incidentally, this work is for a very nice, friendly, and inoffensive non-profit organization in support of the arts. So your help is not going towards the promotion of evil or wanton profits, in case you have an issue with that.

And to forstall any derails: yeah, I know XXX is a much better project management tool, but I did my research and for what we need Bugzilla is what we have to go with. The email in feature seems really great and was a major selling (metaphorically speaking) point, but until I get it working Bugzilla is dead in the water. Thanks for your help.
PS: Yeah, I know perhaps this might be better posted to a specific forum, but I trust the answers of MeFites more. Furthermore, I figure if this hasn't been answered on those forums yet it's not likely that I'll have any luck. I'm hoping a MeFite has done this setup before and is feeling generous.
PPS: This is your chance for fame. As far as I can gather, a lot of people want to set this up but there is no actual information out there. If you can post something good, this page will be where everyone gets their setup information! Your chance to win Nobel Prize is assured!

Help finding Apache 2.2.4 x86_64

hummercash — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:03:39 -0800

I can't seem to find the rpm for Apache 2.2.4 x86_64 for RedHat 4 and/or CentOS 4.4... does anyone know where it is or if it even exists? Gracias.

Cox Cable Webstar Modem with Redhat Linux or Alternatives?

Didaskalos — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 15:36:36 -0800

My father-in-law (retired blue-collar aluminum worker, widowed, fixed-income, screwed out of health benefits when his former corporate employer filed bankruptcy) has an old Win 98 computer. Last year I installed major upgrades and switched him to Redhat Linux. All was well until Cox Cable swapped his old cable modem for a Webstar that is not Linux compatible. Can I get him back on Cox Cable with Redhat Linux without having to buy a new computer? Would a new cable modem work and if so, what brand?

Apache/Linux permissions issue

willc — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:28:36 -0800

How do I set permissions on a Fedora Core 5 system so that two different users can create, edit, and delete files in the web root (/var/www/html), yet all files retain the ownership of apache:apache? I would settle for just username:apache, as long as the users can still edit each other's files.

I have already added the users to the apache group in /etc/group

They can currently edit any files owned by apache:apache, and can create new files, but the new files are assigned an ownership of username:username by default. This means they have to manually chown their files if they want the other person to be able to edit them.

I hope I am explaining this well enough...

'nobody' spam

Witty — Wed, 03 May 2006 06:54:05 -0800

How can I determine exactly from where or how a server's email queue is being filled with outgoing spam from user 'nobody'? Here's the basic set up:
Redhat 9.0
Apache 1.3.34
Exim 4.52
Cpanel - latest version
(note: I'm looking at about 1,500 of these set ups, so massive changes aren't going to be possible, including the use of phpsuexec.)

So the deal is, a spam complaint comes in pegging a certain IP address as the culprit. I match it up with the actual server and find a mail queue with 60,000 outgoing messages, 59,995 of which are spam. The outgoing address is nobody@hostname.com (of course), since Apache runs as user nobody.

Occassionally, I can match up the timestamp of an email to an Apache log entry, showing me that a certain "contact us" script, or something of the sort, is being exploited. At that point, the"fix" is easy. But more often than not, especially when the cPanel installation has about 250 accounts, trying to find THE insecure script responsible for the creation of thousands of outgoing emails is like looking for a needle in a hystack.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can attack this problem more efficiently and productively?

Parts to build a cheap(ish) Linux Desktop PC?

de void — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 09:08:36 -0800

Looking for the component suggestions on what is the "sweet spot" as far as price/performance to build a cheap-ish desktop Linux PC. I've already got a great monitor and a KVM switch, just need to build the box. I'd like to keep the cost in the $500 range. I'm currently taking courses for a RedHat Linux certification. I've got an old Thinkpad with Fedora Core installed on it to play with for the meantime. However it's really limited on disk space (9GB) and it's a bit pokey when using the GUI.

So I want to build a desktop (actually, it will go inside a cheap 4U 19" rackmount case I've got laying around) for linux playing. It's going to get Fedora Core also but I think eventually I'll move to SUSE when I finish the certification.

Although I've built many PC's it's been about 2 years since the last one and I haven't kept up with what's current in hardware. I've also never built one specifically for a linux installation.

I'm very concerned about getting hardware that has driver support in the currently released kernel. I do not want to be chasing down linux hardware drivers.

Checklist for what I'd like the desktop to have:

- Nvidia Video Card with VGA *AND* DVI output - I want to play with XGL.

- Ability to have multiple non-SCSI HDD's. I understand SATA is now prevalent instead of EIDIE - how many drives can you install per SATA controller?

- Gigabit ethernet.

- USB (I'm sure this is integrated on any recent motherboard)

So, after all that, I'm looking for a recommendation for:

Motherboard
Processor
Hard Drive(s)
Memory
Video Card
Power Supply

and any interface cards needed for features not integrated into motherboard (gigabit ethernet, for instance).

Working at RedHat?

toastchee — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 06:53:41 -0800

Working at Redhat? I'd like to know if anyone has any experience working as a developer for Redhat in Raleigh. Thoughts?

Laptop with Red Hat

The Jesse Helms — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:28:49 -0800

Anyone know where I can get a nice laptop with linux preinstalled, especially Red Hat Enterprise 4?

Open source e-mail scalability

id — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:38:21 -0800

I am responsible for setting up and maintaining a mail server for small web-hosting type business. We currently host about 75 domains, around 100 mailboxes and due to the efforts of our sales team, we are wanting to get ready for some great increases in those numbers. I am worried about my current configuration and ease of administration. More importantly (well, at least to the customers) is email deliverability -- it seems that messages delivered to some big players are being marked as SPAM or disappearing altogether. I am asking for insight and advice on 1) if my current choice of software/configuration is a good match for this situation and 2) if there any additional measures I might take to ensure email deliverability? Here is an overview of our current setup:

* We lease servers at ev1servers.net.
* The servers are running RHEL ES3.
* We chose to use Postfix and have it configured to support virtual users and domains mapped in MySQL tables. The reference I used to configure this setup is located here. We initially chose Postfix over qmail because it was open and over sendmail because the config files are actually readable.
* I have added in SQLGrey grey-listing for Postfix to provide a simple level of SPAM detection for our users. We are not wanting to deal with the customer service and higher box loads of mail scanning at this time. We might choose to use a 3rd party vendor to do this as needed.
* Messages are delivered locally via maildrop in maildir format.
* Courier IMAP is running to support both IMAP and POP access to the mailboxes.
* Postfix Admin was setup for easy mailbox administration.

For deliverabilty, I have/am taking the following steps:

* I have verified that our reverse IP records are correct
* I have created SPF records for all of the domains
* I have verified that our server is not listed in any blacklists (great scanner at dnsstuff.com)
* I have started to install DomainKeys for Postfix

In doing all of that, I have found that our IP is listed in the BlarsBL. Do I need to be concerned about this rogue list? The IP was there before I even began to setup the box.

I have not yet been able to get DomainKeys to work with Postfix. It was during my configuration attempts that I started to question this setup and wondered if this was the best setup for our situation.. this inquiry has lead to this posting.

In a perfect world, I would have an email server that

* is easy to administer,
* supports automated mailbox setup/removal (currently I can just insert rows into my tables and the mailbox setup is done)
* supports current technologies, like grey-listing, DomainKeys, etc
* is secure
* makes the best use of system resources -- I want to get the "best bang for the buck"

So what do you think? Should I stick with this setup and life will be grand? I am open to something new AND even taking the time to learn a new setup. If I do need to switch to something different, my only concern would be the ability to migrate existing mailboxes and messages over to the new setup.

Are there any other technologies or configurations that I need to implement to support the best deliverabilty rates?

[question posted for a 'friend']

Is there a way to force xdvi to open dvi files in the same window everytime?

pissfactory — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 09:50:20 -0800

is there a way to force xdvi to open dvi files in the same window everytime? (Red Hat Enterprise Server, fvwm window manager). man page and google no help...

Linux -> Mac Mini?

sfluke20 — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 15:47:43 -0800

I'm thinking of dumping my home Redhat 9 linux server in favor of the new cheap Mac Mini to serve the same purpose (file, web, mail). Is this a good idea? [mi] I've struggled with security, packages, corruption, compiling, upgrading and endless configuration with Linux for the past 6 years or so for my home web/email server. I run Apache, MySQL, php, Postfix, Courier-Imap and a smattering of other normal things. For years I've had this server but I've never trusted it... While I could have used it as a general file server, I've never felt comfortable using it in this way. It seems like it could just "go" at any minute, either by crashing, corrupting or some sort of an intrusion.

So with the new cheap Mac Mini I'm considering throwing away my years of work getting the dumb Linux stuff to work, and using the Mac as a server. I'm not sure if this is practical or not based on the specs of the Mac, and so on. Does anyone have any experience moving from a Linux -> Mac to use as a server for very small, personal purposes?

Help! My CD-ROM device and (apparently) drivers have disappeared

IshmaelGraves — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 20:17:29 -0800

Help! My CD-ROM device and (apparently) drivers have disappeared. Caveat: I'm running Red Hat 9. The /dev/cdrom virtual device is gone. I believe it pointed to /dev/hdb (or possibly /dev/scd0), but I can't mount those either -- mount tells me 'not a block device.' kudzu -p reveals the following:

-

class: OTHER

bus: IDE

detached: 0

device: hdc

driver: ignore

desc: "UJLá74x¡DVL¯CDZ÷ h¡ h¡ h¡ h¡ h¡ h¡"

-

...which I believe might be the drive. But obviously something's gotten majorly fucked up. The only thing I can think of which might have caused this was trying to play a DVD which MPlayer couldn't read. I tried several times and finally the OS crashed and I had to reboot.

This is on a Toshiba Satellite 1130 or 1135 (don't know for sure). I have no idea what kind of chipset the drive is running.

I would try re-installing Red Hat, or upgrading to Fedora, which I've been meaning to do anyway, but I can't burn the necessary CDs.

Berkeley DB libraries

delfuego — Sat, 23 Oct 2004 11:16:41 -0800

Yet another dorky Linux question: how can I install an upgraded version of the Berkeley DB libraries on my RedHat Linux 9 machine without totally horking all the apps that are installed that rely on the older version? (more inside) I currently have the latest version of 4.0 installed, which is the highest version supported by the RedHat RPM system. Too many apps to conceive of have been compiled against that version; while I wouldn't begin to know how to find them all, I do know that a bunch (including my IMAP server, my webserver, and a few other system-critical services) use v4.0 for their support files. I now have two apps that need v4.2 in order to compile.

I compiled v4.2 using the latest source from the SleepyCat site, and installed it in the default location (/usr/local/BerkeleyDB.4.2/); that's relatively nonstandard for RedHat, so when I started compiling one of the apps that needs v4.2, I gave ./configure the relevant command-line options (LDFLAGS, CPPFLAGS). Configure completed without issue, but the compile step wouldn't complete because it couldn't track down all the header files. So then I realized that it probably makes sense to try to install v4.2 in the "standard" RedHat locations (/usr/lib, /usr/include, etc.) I have TERRIBLE memories of this failing miserably in the past -- totally screwing up old apps, bringing my system to its knees, that sort of thing -- so now I reach out to my AskMe buddies for help! Is there a way to do this which (a) allows newly-compiling apps to find the libraries easily, and (b) allows old apps to still use the v4.0 libraries without complaining?

Why won't my RH linux play my shoutcast music stream?

jmd82 — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 08:41:18 -0800

At work we use Red Hat linux and I've used Shoutcast to stream music. Today, I tried it on a different computer than normal and got an error reading something along the lines of "digital rights conflict with mpeg1/mpeg2/mpeg3 and Red Hat will now allow you to stream music." Thinking it would still stream (silly me), I clicked the "Do not show me this again" box and now I can't stream anything off any website and can't see that error message to give better details. I also use xmms. Anyone heard of this or know what's up? Also, my normal computer is in use so can't test that one out.