[wplug] I'm a Linux whimp (need kernel help)

[Poyner, Brandon]

> Which brings up a project I've been meaning to investigate - can I run
> an up2date server of my own?  If I have a bunch of (unlicensed -
> copyright-compliant (i.e. Shadowman) redist of RHEL only carries the
> penalty of non-connection to RHN) RHEL boxen, and I suck SRPMS from
> ftp.redhat.com/.../updates, can I publish those to my internal up2date
> clients?

I imagine it's possible, I don't know exactly how you'd immitate RHN.  
It's probably significantly easier to set up a yum repository.  That
seems to be how White Box Linux gets around the issue.

> If you've got no vendor support anyway, there's no reason not to just
> build the GFS SRPMS if you need 'em...

It involves patching the kernel, and that can get tedious among all the
kernel upgrades you will surely have to do due to other security issues.
Plus support among the community will be weaker as few people will be
using  GFS.

> Er... are you forgetting about the lock-and-hang problems with
> rpm-4.0?  IIRC there were still unresolved issues in 4.0.1 whose fixes
> were never backported to RH8...

I had it happen a few times, I got around it by blowing away the
__db.00{1,2,3} files.  It wasn't that big of a show stopper for me.

Brandon Poyner
Network Engineer III
CCAC - College Office
412-237-3086