Scientific Linux - It blinded me with science!

Hi guys,

RedHat surprises in more than one way. If you considered RedHat to be a spartan distro only meant for servers and power users, think again. Time to break the old conventions, and that's exactly what Scientific Linux does.

Enjoy a long and very enthusiastic review of Scientific Linux, a RedHat-based distribution developed in CERN, focusing on scientific and engineering software and usability out of the box, featuring Wireless and Blueetooth drivers, Compiz, multimedia support (Flash, MP3, Windows video), Samba sharing, Yum Extender package manager, great stability (suspend, hibernate), and much more. It's brilliant. Must read.

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/scientific-linux.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

I use RHEL usually more than any other, red hat virtualization and also as a host for VMWare, which probably goes to why I like it because of daily use of a strong, ultra stable and well supported os.

This looks interesting though!..features normally left to fedora. I like it. Nice review as always.

 

Bonus points for the youtube video - "Commence to start the experiment"

Interesting distro, your conclusion sounds spot on, halfway between redhat and fedora.
If I was not so busy I would try it.

 

Ya, nice documentation.
Really good of you to keep stretching the boundaries in such an accessible way.
Demystifying some of the, perhaps, less obvious distros is nice.

CentOS and Scientific: both very good to me

LOL, asked before: no answer.

"We" ( heh: read 'me' at least ) need the fedora adopters to run the gauntlet and then reap the benefits downstream with CentOS and Scientific.

After running Scientific for some time, the other benefit I've noted is that of faster updates to apps Vs. CentOS; not really noticeable, but new releases/updates are generally available earlier in Scientific.

Scientific seems better enabled in some ways.
Yum is a nice tool in both.

X32 and X64 both running well here: afaics no specific advantage for me either way with current HW.

IS there paid support in CentOS or Scientific ??
( afaik RHEL does not do home support ?? Missing the boat there ??)
AS meriadoc notes, RHEL and clones are ..ssooo..solid that VMWare is well supported which I regard as very useful.

I've never posted in Scientific Mailing Lists, but I find CentOS forum very generous.

 

very nice review mrk great job man


source:youtube.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7auYR5-xj-Y

looking so far great distro

i am downloading and try it today

 

yes i downladed it and now trying please

its based on gnome 2.16 same as centos 5.4

one thing please make me correct......... is it possible to upgrade to gnome 2.28.2 on centos 5.4 or Scientific Linux

if yes please can any one help me how to do it

 

Hi Mrk,

On virtual machine, I am (very slowly) learning Linux since I got Win7 ultimate.
This taught me at least that windows was certainly not so necessary for home.

Anyway, I can almost use Ubuntu in any situation (as I didn't have problems yet). I need to remember I didn't have to set up the internet connexion or whatever as it is brilliantly handled by the VirtualBox from Sun.

Concerning Scientific Linux, everything is nice... almost:
- Very long boot (compared to Ubuntu)
- Look not so nice
- More problematic is the Sudo matter. I really found no way to add my user to the sudoers, so I end up with a Xp or pre-Xp age-like. I understand that this distribution is CERN-oriented. (I saw the names of the people in the sudoer file. I tried to modify it by sudo visudo, but eventually, I realise I don't know how to modify this file, and even worse I don't understand the underlying phylosophy. So I end-up having to go and connect under root to make any modification, which is pissing me off.

On a side note, the terminal window is a pain in the a*s as well (for any Linux distro), as well as the fact that you never know if you should use the terminal for sudo command lines or the gksudo for graphic interface programs.

I will carry on testing Linux, but there is still a long way before reaching the "whatever is easy" way from Windows.
Thank you to show me really relevant links (I tried so many without getting the answer I am really looking for).

On top of it I am trying Unbuntu with Selinux. I can't find any way to modify the configuration as I can on SciLinux, or use the same available tools for this purpose on Ubuntu.

If you have any explanation, or links, thanks in advance.

Regards,

 

Lucy,

I suggest you enable app armor in Ubuntu, far easier to implement as well.

 

Hi Lucy,

You can easily change the theme and make it more presentable:

System > Preferences > Appearance, then change the border color or theme, change icons to Gnome, change the desktop to something stylish, and you'll have a stock Gnome.

The boot is long, indeed, I have nothing to recommend for that...

sudo - You need to do visudo again and under the root add your own user:
user ALL=(ALL) ALL

Something like lucy ALL=(ALL) ALL

Alternatively, just type su in terminal when you need something and provide the root password. Please note that you don't need to run the full X as root, only specific bits that need access, like package manager and such.

As for gksudo, that's overhyped. You can just use plain old sudo and that's it.

Mrk

 

Well Mrk,

Thanks for your reply.

The culprit is that I know I have to insert "user" ALL=(ALL) ALL, just under the root line, but I dont know how to do it.

Here is what I do:

Under Root login, I enter visudo in a terminal window:


I then press enter:


I need to use the Pagedown button to get to the bottom:

I am now at the Root line. Impossible to insert any text.

1- Is there a conbination of keys I should press first? What hould I do to insert this line?
2- How do I save this sudoers file? I did already some modifications, but everytime, it comes back unchanged.

 

It's vi ... a very wicked text editor:
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/UnixAndC/Editors/ViIntro.html

You can also manually edit: /etc/sudoers.

In general, i - insert mode, Esc - command mode.
:wq to save and exit when in command mode.

Regards,
Mrk

 

Well, I am going to really annoy you and show you the journey I have to accomplish befor being somewhat knoledgeable in Linux... But:

- should I simply press i and then it is insert mode? And then what if my login contains a i (how the system will recognise it asa letter and not as a command?)

If I press simultaneously esc and wq it indicates that it is recording (for ever). What means :wq, what the : stands for?

Anyway, the esc :wq doesnt exit.

From a perspective of a perfect beginner, Linux is difficult and linux users forget about it...

 

:wq=Write the file and quit vi; some versions quit even if the write was unsuccessful! Use `ZZ' instead.

Some other helps-

http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/vi.html

 

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/how-to-add-a-user-to-the-sudoers-list/
Lucy,
Interesting , I haven't done this before either and don't need to, but you have started a nice little learning sequence. Wish you success !

(You can either then press ESC to go back into the command mode and issue :wq! to save and quit and or do a Shift+ZZ in command mode to quit and save.)

 

Mrk,

Looks like, changes have been applied. Your link was very helpfull to get the syntax and the flow of actions right.

To Ocky and isole, thanks for your links.

 

Now that everything runs fine, I encountered a new problem, and I dare to adress it to you:

I installed SRWare Iron but it doesn't want to run. I suppose SeLinux is the cause. Can somebody can indicate a link which explains how to allow a program in selinux?

I have a program in Scientific Linux called selinux management. Is it possible to install it on Ubuntu ? NB: I don't even know the real name of this program and how to get it.

Regards,
(Ok, I promise I stop bothering you afterwards)

 

Hi Lucy,

I would recommend you disable selinux in home environment.
It's a nice addition for servers, but it's a total overkill for home use.
It's not necessary and just conflicts with lots of programs.

Regards,
Mrk

 

Lucy - one option besides the sudo interface, with all Redhat based distros that don't have sudo installed you can run commands as 'root' with su -c 'your_Command'
example:

Code:

user@testbox:~$ su -c 'tail -f /var/log/messages'

granted you will still have to put in the root password every time, but this is the old way to elevate privileges.

HTH

 

Agree totally. The by-default rights management is a complete achievement even compared to ACL+LUA+AppLocker one can encounter in WinWorld. But before giving up, I want at least to be able to set one or two rules, for my culture and to get the philosophy behind it.

Interesting tip. I will keep it, just in case.