How to install and use yum (or vzyum) on Solidhost Centos VPS?

[marcof]

Greetings,

I have just connected to my Solidhost VPS running Centos 4.4 and found out that yum
is not installed. As I understand it, this is due to the fact that this is a VPS, not a physical box.

I would like to know from other Centos sysadmins at SolidHost how they install, configure and use yum ( or vzyum? which one is the right one on these servers?)

Searching online I have only found this thread http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/...?topic_id=6954

which seems to deal with the same issue, but I still have not clear wether I should use yum as explained there or vzyum.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated,

Marco

[SH-Andre]

Hi Marco,

Some VPS's come with yum pre-installed, some don't - that mainly depends on which control panel you get (as some control panels require yum).

Here are the instructions to install yum:

cd /root
mkdir temp
cd temp
wget www.solidhost.com/cpinstall/centos-yumconf.rpm www.solidhost.com/cpinstall/libxml2-python.rpm www.solidhost.com/cpinstall/python-elementtree.rpm www.solidhost.com/cpinstall/sqlite.rpm www.solidhost.com/cpinstall/python-sqlite.rpm www.solidhost.com/cpinstall/python-urlgrabber.rpm www.solidhost.com/cpinstall/rpm-python.rpm www.solidhost.com/cpinstall/yum.rpm
rpm -ivh *rpm
cd ..
rm -rf temp

Hope this helps. If you experience any problems, please let us know.

[marcof]

Originally Posted by SH-Andre

Hi Marco,

Some VPS's come with yum pre-installed, some don't - that mainly depends on which control panel you get (as some control panels require yum).

Here are the instructions to install yum:
...

Hope this helps. If you experience any problems, please let us know.

Thanks, but unfortunately those packages are not enough:

[root@vps ~]# ls -l *rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   3592 Sep 12  2006 centos-yumconf.rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 449577 Sep 12  2006 libxml2-python.rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  78339 Sep 12  2006 python-elementtree.rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  37689 Sep 12  2006 python-sqlite.rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  93760 Sep 12  2006 python-urlgrabber.rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  80614 Sep 12  2006 rpm-python.rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 183076 Sep 12  2006 sqlite.rpm
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 392645 Sep 12  2006 yum.rpm
[root@vps ~]# rpm -ivh *rpm
warning: centos-yumconf.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 443e1821
error: Failed dependencies:
        rpm = 4.3.3-13_nonptl is needed by rpm-python-4.3.3-13_nonptl.i386
[root@vps ~]# rpm -qa | grep -i ptl
rpm-python-4.3.3-18_nonptl
popt-1.9.1-18_nonptl
rpm-libs-4.3.3-18_nonptl
rpm-4.3.3-18_nonptl

Is this a bug in centos-yumconf.rpm? Whatever it is, how can it be fixed?

Please note that I have no problem at all to do things myself at the command line (I prefer to do it this way, actually): it's just that I really, really want to start from a Solidhost officially-approved base system, that is from a yum set of packages, install and setup which you declare compatible with your VPSs (both in principle and because of the technical problems mentioned in the Centos forum I linked in my initial message)

Oh, I almost forgot: how would I generate passwords for new users? I used to use mkpasswd, but I don't find it on the VPS either.

Thanks again,

Marco

[SH-Andre]

Hi Marco,

No that's not a bug, that just means that a slightly different version is required. It would be easiest if you would open a support ticket about this, so our technicians can install all the correct versions for you. This is fully included with our standard (full) management, so you can always ask us these kind of things.

To change a user's password you can use the "passwd" command. It's very simple. To change the password of user "marco", the command would be:

passwd marco

That's all. You'll then get a prompt to enter the new password (and a confirmation).

[marcof]

Originally Posted by SH-Andre

Hi Marco,

No that's not a bug, that just means that a slightly different version is required.

I meant a "bug" in the base configuration of the VPS and/or the packages provided in the directory mentioned in the first reply. OK, I'll open a ticket.

To change a user's password you can use the "passwd" command. It's very simple.

I know the passwd command, but I don't want to _change_ passwords: I said "generate passwords for new users". I want to create new users from the command line with the useradd command, which requires, per its man page:

-p password
The encrypted password, as returned by crypt(3)

hence the request for mkpasswd, which is just a command line front-end to crypt I always used before in similar situations.
Thanks (any feedback is still welcome, regardless of what will come of the ticket)

Marco

[marcof]

Originally Posted by marcof

. OK, I'll open a ticket.

I had forgotten that the reason why I came here was that I had opened a ticket earlier and was asked to provide (over plain email) the root password which I had just changed. I am not going to send a root password that way. If it's really needed, please publish as an answer here or in the support section of the website a fax number.

Thanks,

Marco

[SH-John]

Originally Posted by marcof

I had forgotten that the reason why I came here was that I had opened a ticket earlier and was asked to provide (over plain email) the root password which I had just changed. I am not going to send a root password that way. If it's really needed, please publish as an answer here or in the support section of the website a fax number.

Thanks,

Marco

Hello,

In your previous ticket you were asked to open a ticket at https://secure.solidhost.com/support/

Your login information will then be sent over a secure connection.

[SH-John]

Hello,

One of our technicians has enabled mkpasswd for you.

If you have any problems with it, please open a support ticket so that our technicians can better assist you. There is obviously a limit to what we can discuss on an open forum.

[Alexanderjhon]

Keep writing, I enjoy the blog. Hope you're doing well.

[SH-Andre]

Originally Posted by Alexanderjhon

Keep writing, I enjoy the blog. Hope you're doing well.

We are actually planning to open an actual blog quite soon, rather than a forum. A blog would be even more helpful, and you can expect to see a lot of useful posts like these from us