Archive
Posts from 2009
Adding 3rd party package repositories to CentOS Linux
As a long time CentOS user, I have grown accustomed to firing up yum to install my favorite packages. Periodically a package I'm looking for isn't available, and I need to go out to a 3rd party repository to snag it. One awesome source for 3rd party repositories is the repositories section of the CentOS website, which contains the yum repository files for several extra package sources. If you are looking for a file that isn't available in the stock CentOS distribution, you should take a look at that site!
$ read more →Creating KVM guests with virt-install and qemu-kvm
In my KVM presentation, I discussed how to create KVM guests using the virt-install utility. To create a KVM guest, you can run the virt-install utility with one or more options that control where the guest will be installed, how to install it, and how to structure the guest hardware profile . Here is one such example: Under the covers virt-install executes qemu-kvm (at least on RHEL derives distributions), which is the process that is responsible for encapsulating the KVM guest in userspace. To start a guest using qemu-kvm, you can execute something similar to the following: While virt-install is definitely easier to use, there are times when you may need to start a guest manually using qemu-kvm (certain options aren't available through virt-install, so understanding how qemu-kvm works is key!)…
$ read more →Dealing with yum checksum errors
I support a couple of yum repositories, and use the yum repository build instru ctions documented in my previous post to create my repositories. When I tried to apply the latest CentOS 5.3 updates to one of my servers last week, I noticed that I was getting a number of "Error performing checksum" errors: After reading through the code in yumRepo.py, I noticed that the error listed above is usually generated when the checksum algorithm specified in the repomd.xml file isn't supported. The createrepo utility uses the sha256 algorithm by default in Fedora 11 (I created my repositories on a Fedora 11 host), so I decided to create my repository using the sha1 algorithm instead: Once I created the repository metadata using the sha1 algorithm, everything worked as expected: This debugging experience made me realize two things: Having your package manager written in Python makes debugging super easy Python 2.6 uses hashlib to perform checksums, and Python 2.4 uses the SHA module to perform checksums. The version of the SHA module that ships with CentOS 5.3 doesn't support sha256, which is why we get the checksum error listed above…
$ read more →Creating yum repositories on CentOS and Fedora Linux hosts
I have written about the yum package manager in the past, and it's one of the main reasons I use CentOS and Fedora Linux. Various 3rd party yum repositories are also available, allowing you to gain access to numerous packages that aren't available in the stock distributions. This is great, but sometimes you want to create your own packages and distribute them to your clients. This is a piece of cake with yum, since you can create your own yum repositories…
$ read more →Making the most of your Netflix account by streaming video
I have been a long time Netflix user, and love the fact that I can rent movies through the mail and return them on my own schedule. Netflix now allows you to stream a number of movies to your desktop, though the streaming service requires that you are able to run Microsoft silverlight. This is pretty awesome, though I wanted a way to be able to watch movies on my high definition tv without having to involve a PC. After a bit of searching, I came across the Roku digital video player…
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