Scientific Linux 6 Alpha 1 Released

Yes, Scientific Linux 6 Alpha 1 was released today...all 4.2+ gigabytes of it. In 32 and 64bit versions. Here's the README from their download site....

*******************************************************************
We have released the first ALPHA release of Scientific Linux 6.

The release is at

http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6rolling/

DVD and Net Install iso downloads are at

These directories contain 2 DVD install images and 1 network install image and the SHA1SUM checksum file.

SL-6-$arch-DVD1.iso
SL-6-$arch-DVD2.iso
SL-6-$arch-boot.iso

http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6rolling/i386/iso/
http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6rolling/x86_64/iso/


KNOWN ISSUES:

Packages that haven't been built, and aren't in the release.
Ruby
ekiga
foomatic
guile
hivex
kdepim-runtime
linuxdoc-tools
perl-GSSAPI
perl-Sys-Virt
perl-Test-MockObject
python-sqlalchemy
TurboGears2
virt-top

We do not have all of the updates that RedHat has released. We do have
some, but not all.

Currently the installer says there is only a "minimal" install available at
the package selection. But if you go into "Customize now" is shows that a
normal desktop install is selected. We plan on fixing this.

There are no specialized pictures shown during the install. Just the one
that you see through the whole time. We are attempting to get this fixed.

UPDATES have NOT been tested. Please only do NEW installs with this ALPHA
release. Do not expect to upgrade this ALPHA release in the future.

CHANGES PLANNED FOR ALPHA 2

We are planning on SL6 Alpha 2 to be released next friday - 10 December
Expected Updates for Alpha 2
- Ruby will be in the release
- Release Notes will be better
- revisor will have all the patches and config files for people to start
building their own sites.
- Hopefully all of the rest of the trouble rpm's will be in the release.
**************************************************************************
As you can see they plan on releasing Alpha 2 this coming Friday (Dec. 10th). A final release obviously isn't far off.

Later...

 

Just updated the test box this morning so far so good, last build was up and running for 18+ days with no issue before this one. Let's hope it keeps it up

/edit/ Oops thought this was the rolling thread, my bad.
Anyway I am using the 6 Rolling release and as stated it's fairly stable, I had some issues with Virtualbox that I couldn't figure out but I will see if I they are present now.

 

Dan,
How are you receiving updates via the Scientific Linux 6 Rolling release? I reinstalled it yesterday (the 1.7 gig version) but the repos seem to be down. Did you change the repo links in the /etc/yum.repos.d folder? If so, what did you add to make them functional?

BTW, here's a link to add rpmforge (red hat 6) to your repo list (if running 32bit)....

http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el6/en/i386/dag/RPMS/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.i686.rpm

and the 64bit link...

http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el6/en/x86_64/dag/RPMS/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm

Dag already has Wine and VLC added but they seem to be lacking some dependencies.

Thanks. .

Later...

 

Dan,
Nevermind. It finally dawned on me that you had downloaded and installed Scientific Linux 6 Alpha 1. I'm a little thick sometimes. .

The Alpha 2 is suppose to be released tomorrow (Dec. 10th) and depending upon the release notes (whether you can upgrade from it to the final) I may download and try it....yes, all 4.2+ gigabytes of it. Man, that's a BIG download.

Later...

 

I have been "Roling" since it was first available with workstation at well work, and it has constantly updated throughout the process with no issues.

BUT, I just got a new SSD for my thinkpad and wanted to try SL6 on it, installed the original rolling release, the 1st one, which I have on dvd and it wouldn't update. The repos were set wrong, so I had to switch the /os/ in the sl.repo file to either before or after the architecture, I'm at work now and don't remember.

Oh wait, I am AT WORK now... DOUGHT! Thanks god it's friday....

It seems to need to be after the architecture:

Code:

[sl]
name=Scientific Linux $releasever - $basearch
baseurl=http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6rolling/$basearch/os/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-beta file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-sl file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-dawson

So, in short you can use the original rolling to go to the latest Alpha, with few minor tweaks.
I have ATRPMS and EPEL in my repos right now.
epel.repo

Code:

[epel]
name=Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - $basearch
#baseurl=http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/$basearch
baseurl=http://mirror.clarkson.edu/epel/beta/6/x86_64/
mirrorlist=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-6&arch=$basearch
failovermethod=priority
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-6

[epel-debuginfo]
name=Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - $basearch - Debug
#baseurl=http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/$basearch/debug
mirrorlist=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-debug-6&arch=$basearch
failovermethod=priority
enabled=0
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-6
gpgcheck=1

[epel-source]
name=Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 6 - $basearch - Source
#baseurl=http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/SRPMS
mirrorlist=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-source-6&arch=$basearch
failovermethod=priority
enabled=0
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-6
gpgcheck=1

ATRPMS.repo

Code:

[atrpms]
name=SL6 $releasever - $basearch - ATrpms
#baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/sl$releasever-$basearch/atrpms/stable
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/sl6-x86_64/atrpms/stable/
gpgkey=http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
gpgcheck=1

Use at your own risk

 

. Funny.

Thanks, Dan, for the repo info.

Later....

 

You're probably already on top of this, but, if not, here's Scientific's updates repo....

[sl-updates]
name=Scientific Linux $releasever - $basearch
baseurl=http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6rolling/$basearch/updates/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-beta file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-sl file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-dawson

You were correct...you can update to the latest version, which, at present, is Scientific Alpha 2 (released just a short while ago). Once I changed out the repo info I shortly had 387 packages waiting on me. One of the nice things about this upgrade is both my bootup and shutdown themes are these cool looking Red Hat 6 ones.

Thanks again for your help.

Later...

 

yeah I have that one, the updates came through a few days ago before the respin was available if you had previously installed the SL Alpha, as I have, then you can yum add the "new" packages. I honestly love the fact that the default install is so tiny. so I am going to try to stick with the Alpha until the release version then see how the upgrade to it goes. If all goes well, then it will stick on the lappy(as it has replaced Arch on this SSD at the moment)

 

Just a heads up. according to mailing list Alpha 3 should hit tomorrow.

 

I'm wondering how many Alphas they're planning on putting out before the Beta or Final shows up.

According to what I've read in an article over at DistroWatch CentOS 6 might be a long time in coming. Some bickering is going on. On the other hand, Scientific 6 seems to "rolling" along quite nicely and RPMForge already has VLC (1.1.5) and Wine (1.37) in its repos. I do wish they'd add Devede and Abiword. If they did I might even totally switch from Ubuntu (especially with the state of Unity). I tried a daily build (12-15-2010) of Natty yesterday and it was just terrible. After I installed the 3-D driver and rebooted it couldn't even make it to Desktop. To be perfectly honest I think going with Unity is a really bad idea. This is going to hurt Ubuntu's popularity with present and future users.

Later...

 

Trespasser,

Re. Abiword etc. I wonder if this may help. Watch the priorities with Epel as mentioned in the thread for CentOS.

https://www.centos.org/modules/newb...d=18998&forum=38&post_id=70305#forumpost70305

http://rpm.pbone.net/

Fedora 6 archive.fedoraproject.org/fedora/linux/extras/6/x86_64/abiword-2.4.6-1.fc6.x86_64.rpm
Fedora 6 archive.fedoraproject.org/fedora/linux/extras/6/i386/abiword-2.4.6-1.fc6.i386.rpm

Edit. No problems. Just installed it after installing epel repo. I set the priorities for the repo to 13 (priority=13) so as not to have conflicts with rpmforge (dag).
You will see that over 1400 packages were excluded due to priorities protection.
It's fine here on CentOS 5.5. (Abiword that is - albeit not the latest version).

17:36:47 : 1460 packages excluded due to repository priority protections
<<<<<CUT>>>>>>
17:41:48 : Retrieving GPG key from file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL
17:41:48 : Importing GPG key 0x217521F6 "Fedora EPEL <epel@fedoraproject.org>" from /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL
17:41:58 : Key imported successfully
<<<<<CUT>>>>>>
17:42:08 : Running Transaction
17:42:54 : Installed:
17:42:54 : --> 1:abiword-2.6.4-8.el5.2.i386
17:42:54 : Dependency Installed:
17:42:55 : --> enchant-1.3.0-1.el5.rf.i386
17:42:55 : --> fontpackages-filesystem-1.44-1.el5.1.noarch
17:42:55 : --> 1:libabiword-2.6.4-8.el5.2.i386
17:42:55 : --> loudmouth-1.4.3-1.el5.rf.i386
17:42:55 : --> lyx-fonts-1.6.8-1.el5.i386
17:42:55 : --> wv-1.2.4-1.el5.rf.i386
17:43:00 : Setup Yum : Transaction Set




I will just wait for CentOS 6 and then triple boot.

 

My guess on _why_ the Alphas is because for some reason, I didn't read to far into it, they couldn't get some packages to compile. They build them in different environments(Fedora mainly) and are trying to ensure that there are not that many bugs. I know I wouldn't want the LHC creating a blackhole in SUI because someone didn't check against a build environment

 

Well, I downloaded Scientific Linux 6 Alpha 3. Disc 1 is 4.2 gigs and disc 2 is 240 MBs in size. BTW, you need both of them. I thought I could get by with disc 1 but right after I customized my install it told me I needed both discs. So I had to ask my wife to surrender her Desktop for a few minutes while I downloaded disc 2, did a checksum, then burned it to a CD.

The Alpha 3 installed about 200 less files than the pre-alpha (1.7 gigs) that I had been using previously. Nice. It operates smoothly. I like it so far even though it doesn't list our home wireless network printer in Printing. I'll figure it out eventually.

With reference to Devede that I made in a previous post...it installs very easily. All you need to do is download this tar.b2 file...

http://www.rastersoft.com/descargas/devede-3.16.9.tar.bz2

install RPMForge's repo data...

http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el6/en/i386/dag/RPMS/rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.i686.rpm

then install mplayer, mencoder, vcdimager, and dvdauthor. After that unzip the devede tar.bz2 file, cd to that folder, then as root type ./install.sh. You'll then find Devede listed under Sound & Video ready to use. Works great. All I need to find now is pygame for el6.

Later...

 

So none of you use the yum priorities plugin, alternatively the protect base plugin ?
I would have thought that to be rather important, especially when adding a repo like epel, which apparently 'does not play nice' with the Dag rpmforge repo. These packages have been added to SL afaik.


PS. I don't think they have built the abiword pkg. at epel for SL 6 alphas yet. Looks like they are only available for SL 5x

 

In my experience yum priorities is pretty much useless. But then again I only use ATrpm, EPEL and Virtual box repos.

 

i would rather be on the safe side and do what CentOS recommend in their wiki. Never had a
problem with conflicts or dependencies.

 

In my experience I have had more issues with my one use of Yum priorities than all the other times without.
1 out of 100 at least... But what works for you, works for you.

The only other time I used anything remotely close without having to screw around to install most things was with APT pinning, when I was interested in Ubuntu. As I was just testing out the new kernels it was fine for that issue. Everyday use, not so much.

 

Sure, as long as all is hunky dory for both of us I'm happy.

Regards

 

Ocky,
I installed yum-priorities but I don't see any entry in the menu or yum-package manager to use it. So, how do you use it? This is in Scientific Linux 6 Alpha 3, btw.

Thanks. .

Later...

 

You will need to enable plugins in your /etc/yum.conf file.

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
distroverpkg=redhat-release
tolerant=1
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1
plugins=1

# Note: yum-RHN-plugin doesn't honor this.
metadata_expire=1h

# Default.
# installonly_limit = 3

# PUT YOUR REPOS HERE OR IN separate files named file.repo
# in /etc/yum.repos.d


Regards

 

Ocky,
Thanks for the info. As always you're a big help. Unfortunately CloneZilla screwed up my Scientific 6 Alpha 3 image (it will not boot up to Desktop) which means I'll have to reinstall... . Too bad...for I had everything working nicely. PySolFC works...Devede works...Bleachbit works. The only thing I lack is finding a source/repo for AbiWord (2.8.x) and a gtk-orphan equivalent.

Thanks again. .
Later....

 

Just to update...thank goodness for the rescue choice on the Scientific 6 install disc. It allowed me to mount sysimage in the installed but non-booting system. Then all I needed to do was type "grub-install /dev/sda". After that, Scientific Linux 6 was back to normal.

BTW, Ocky, plugins, in yum.conf, is already enabled yet I still don't see any way to prioritize my repos. Oh well. No big deal, really.

Thanks once again.

Later...

 

In the repo files, for instance you posted previously;

Just add priority=1; for epel repo priority=13; for rpmforge priority=10 for example. All 3rd party repos should have lower priority settings. 1 is highest priority 99 is lowest priority.

 

Well...now I'm embarrassed -[ ). I never noticed "priority" at the end of that repo entry. I was expecting a gui or a listing within the package manager.

This info will be useful in controlling ATRPMS (which I don't presently have enabled).

Thanks, Ocky. .

Later....

 

Sorry, I should have been more explicit - it needs to be added to the repo file(s). Open as administrator with gedit and add for each repo file ensuring 3rd party repos have a lower priority than base, updates etc. I had it marked in bold as it wasn't originally there.
Apologies. Glad to see you are up and running with SL again.