I was updating an application on my SL7.1 laptop workstation, not using
a terminal screen yum but the GUI interface that automagically appears
after "clicking" on the downloaded RPM in the web browser download
window. Unfortunately, the ISP network failed during the update (that
evidently downloaded other RPMs required). The update did not appear to
be re-entrant recoverable. The system was left in a state whereby the
entire Xwindows system failed (a terminal screen on other F keys did
work), and there was no easy rollback method. I then used the SL 7.2
ISO DVD via a terminal screen in yum upgrade (a switch/qualifier to
yum); the "upgraded" system would not boot. I finally did a fresh
install of SL 7.2 via booting from the SL 7.2 ISO DVD, having to
reformat / , /usr , /boot, swap, but saving /home, /opt, and /usr/local
as I am using "conventional" partitions (the machine only has a 1 Tbyte
drive) with XFS format. (I have left the EXT series and now exclusively
use XFS on all new installations. XFS appears to be mature and stable.)
Has anyone done the above (or portions thereof) with RHEL 7.2 or CentOS
7.2, and if so, are there any differences?
Several observations (recall: this a minor release update -- 7.1 to
7.2; also, the mv scenarios explained below would require a detailed
algorithmic or equivalent diagram to be precise -- I have not done this
here to save space):
1. During the install, I was required to enter a new root password and
create a user account (mine) to which I granted admin privileges under
the GUI installer (this evidently makes me a sudo-er).
1.1 The installer created a new /home under the / partition, and
renamed the old /home to /hiome .
1.2 After installing the ELRepo and EPEL repository files, I did the yum
package install of mate (the window manager system I prefer).
1.4 As root, I exchanged (via a set of mv commands, not a simple mv)
the old /home and the newly created /home .
1.5 After a restart, now logged into my old /home, I discovered that
the current mate did not work, with symptoms I had seen before (a
failure of caja). Call my home directory (account) on SL 7.1 foo . I
then did a mv foo oldfoo on /home (the old home, a real partition, not
the /home created by the install, merely a directory under / but
residing in the / partition). From the /home created by the installer
(and now renamed /hiome), I moved that foo to foo under the real /home.
Mate now worked. On the first run, my desktop did not correctly appear
(missing icons/entries). Upon one more full reboot, my old desktop
appeared (many links broken that required re-installation into 7.2) but
not in the same layout as before (the apparent arrangement of the icon
upon the desktop screen display). I have now reinstalled most of these.
Several observations, questions -- all pertaining to SL 7.2 / mate (if a
KDE, etc., application/interface works under mate, such qualify as "mate").
Q1 I previously had gpk-application as the primary software GUI
installer. This has been replaced by gnome-software that appears quite
different.
Q1.1 Is there a GUI application that will list all installed RPMs
(obviously, this does not work for packages installed/built other than
through the RPM methodology)?
Q1.2 Is there a GUI means to select software sources (repositories) to
enable/disable these at will?
Q1.3 Other than a web search for an application RPM followed by the
command line yum install, is there a GUI application other than
gnome-software to list all available applications from all
selected/installed repositories?
Q2 How does yumex work in 7.2 -- the same as in 7 previous?
There are other small glitches and changes, but nothing severe for the
nonce.
