[Triumf-linux-managers] TRIUMF kickstart of Scientific-Linux 5.5

[Kelvin Raywood]

The TRIUMF kickstart of Scientific-Linux 5.5 is now available.
See <http://it-services.triumf.ca/computing/linux> for

* Installation instructions

* Description of rpms that customise ScientificLinux for use at TRIUMF

* Package choices in the TRIUMF kickstart

* Notes on installing drivers for Nvidia video-cards

* Instructions on upgrading to ScientificLinux 5.5 from earlier 
minor-releases of SL-5

Scientific-Linux is based on RedHat Enterprise Linux. See:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5.5/html/Release_Notes/

As with all minor releases, most of the updates are in device drivers to 
support new hardware.  The most significant update for desktop use is 
OpenOffice-3.1 which provides the capability to import docx, xlsx, ... 
ScientificLinux pushes these back to earlier minor releases so it is not 
necessary to upgrade to get these updates.

For those operating servers, there are new versions of Samba and PostgreSQL.

ScientificLinux adds some packages that are not in the upstream.  The 
most significant upgrade is to OpenAFS.  For the complete list see: 
https://www.scientificlinux.org/news/sl55

*Changes to the TRIUMF kickstart*

_New Packages_

gnuplot42, gnuplot42-doc, gnuplot42-latex : This provides gnuplot 
version 4.2 in addion to gnuplot-4.0 that is still availble.

xemacs : This was removed from SL at 5.0, but is now included in EPEL 
and installed by default in the TRIUMF kickstart for SL-5.5 .

pam-krb5, krb5-workstation : Although these were always available, they 
were not included in previous TRIUMF kickstarts.  Some at TRIUMF need 
them so they are installed by default.  They add kerberised commands to 
your PATH but are otherwise harmless.

gsl, gsl-devel :  The GNU Scientific-Libraries which provide a 
collection of numerical-analysis routines.  They are installed from EPEL.

_Other Repositories_

EPEL <http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL> provides packages that are 
compatible with ScientificLinux.  It is mirrored at 
http://mirror.triumf.ca/epel and enabled by default in TRIUMF kickstart 
installations since SL-5.2

ELREPO <http://elrepo.org> provides hardware drivers for RedHat 
Enterprise Linux and its spin-offs.  It is mirrored at 
http://mirror.triumf.ca/elrepo and enabled by default.  It is the 
recommended source for obtaining the proprietry drivers for Nvidia 
video-cards.

--
Kel Raywood
Core Computing and Networking
TRIUMF