I had to setup a forwarding DNS servers today and since I had never done it before I was looking for a quick way.

I installed the bind rpm package that comes with RHEL5 and was puzzled since it did not create the /etc/named.conf. So I created one with this content:

options {
directory “/var/named”;
forwarders {10.1.1.1; 10.1.1.2;};
forward only;
};

That was not an obvious one. Under KUbuntu I typically use the KPackageKit application to install and update applications.  It did not work well. I tried to install the sun-java-jdk package many times and every time it would list the dependencies and do the install but the “java -version” would tell me that I was still using the OpenJDK.

After reading a few different posts in forums I tested the idea to use the synaptic package manager. The installation worked much better.

To finalize the install I ran a few commands at the cli:

sudo update-java-alternatives -l

This listed the fact that I now have the OpenJDK and Sun Java installed on my workstation.

sudo update-alternatives –config java

This allowed me to specify to use the Sun Java as my default JVM.

java -version

This now reports the Sun Java JRE as my JVM.

I can now use Maven to compile some test projects.

I guess there are still a few issues with the OpenJDK to be fully compatible (might just be some configuration that I am not aware of).

I spent days trying to get the NVidia drivers to work on different 64 bits Linux distributions without success. Initially I was blaming Kubuntu 9.04 for these issues but I tried with Slamd64 and downloading the drivers from NVidia and had the same issues. I also tried with openSUSE 11.1 64 bits and it did not work.

Some desperate time passed…

I tried Kubuntu 9.04 32 bits and it worked on the first try.

I am quite puzzled about this. The Slamd64 site specifically mention that they have done testing to make sure that binaries like the NVidia Drivers would work. They work to install and compile but the X server does not start properly.

Not only that issue is bothering me but I can’t have one monitor turned 90 degrees and the other in normal mode. These limitations are not pleasant.

I must be missing something since it should work.

I found a few documents on the Internet about what I needed to do to rebuild the DVD to integrate my kickstart file. Unfortunately none of the solution had all the needed command in one place for my setup to work so here is my cookbook from the different sources.

First I mounted the dvdrom with the CentOS DVD to /mnt/cdrom:

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

Then I copied a few files:

• cd /tmp
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/isolinux ./
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/CentOS ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/* ./isolinux/ [say yes to overwrite the TRANS.TBL]
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/.discinfo ./isolinux/
• cp ks.cfg /tmp/isolinux/

For my RHEL5.1 rebuild I did similar commands but the paths are a bit different:

• cd /tmp
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/isolinux ./
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/Server ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/VT ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/images ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/Cluster ./isolinux/
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/ClusterStorage ./isolinux/
• cp /mnt/cdrom/* ./isolinux/ [say yes to overwrite the TRANS.TBL]
• cp -R /mnt/cdrom/.discinfo ./isolinux/
• cp ks.cfg /tmp/isolinux/

I had to change permissions on 2 files:

• chmod 664 ./isolinux/isolinux.bin
• chmod 664 ./isolinux/isolinux.cfg

I had to edit the isolinux.cfg (in the isolinux directory) to change a couple of lines:

• the “default linux” line became “default ks“
• The 2 line after “label ks” went from “append ks initrd=initrd.img” to “append ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img“

The isolinux.cfg file now looks like:

default ks
prompt 1
timeout 600
display boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg
label linux
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img
label text
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img text
label ks
kernel vmlinuz
append ks=cdrom:/ks.cfg initrd=initrd.img
label local
localboot 1
label memtest86
kernel memtest
append -

To build the ISO (all this on one line):

mkisofs -o centos5-dvd1.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -r -R -J -V “CentOS 5.1 (CentOS) Disk1″ -A “CentOS 5.1 (CentOS) Disk1″ -p “Cinq” -T isolinux/

For Red Hat Entreprise Linux 5.1 I had to change the label for the DVD from “CentOS 5.1 (CentOS) Disk1″ to “RHEL_5.1 x86_64 DVD” (obviously I am using the x64 version for RHEL5) so the command became:

mkisofs -o centos5-dvd1.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -r -R -J -V “RHEL_5.1 x86_64 DVD” -A “RHEL_5.1 x86_64 DVD” -p “Cinq” -T isolinux/

Reference sites:

• http://www.techonthenet.com/linux/centos4_update.php
• https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?viewmode=flat&order=ASC&topic_id=3635&forum=27&move=next&topic_time=1149676608
• http://blog.nominet.org.uk/tech/2005/09/19/building-a-redhat-enterprise-linux-serial-console-boot-dvd/
• http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/RHEL-4-Manual/en-US/System_Administration_Guide/Kickstart_Installations-Kickstart_Options.html
• http://nootech.wordpress.com/2007/12/11/build-a-custom-centos-5-install-cd/