Intro to Linux
Urban Voice -- Instructor: Lenny Bailes
Day 4 Agenda
1. Fix Red Hat Automatic Update Utility.
This automatic feature was broken on August 28, 2003, due to the expiration of a Red Hat
security feature. Without this feature, you cannot use the automatic Up2Date icon on your
taskbar to install new versions of Red Hat distribution packages.
- Two new packages must be installed, one for UP2DATE and one for
gnome-up2date.- To download these packages, log on as the root user.
- There is a problem with the package links on the page you will reach by clicking the
Activate button on the introductory Redhat Page bundled with Mozilla.- Instead, go to Red Hat Network page (You can also get there by clicking the RHN
link button on your browser menu.
Click on the link you'll find on that page and download the two packages under
Red Hat 9 i386 (up2date-3.1.23.2-1.i386.rpm and
up2date-gnome-3.1.23.2-1.i386.rpm You can save these files in the root folder.
- Red Hat tells you that the two packages must be installed at the same time, so you
can't just double-click on them in sequence:
Instead, open a terminal window and use the command-line package installer (rpm).
Go to the root directory and issue the command: rpm -FVH up2date*
This will install the new packages.
- You must now reregister your computer with the Red Hat website. To do this, enter
the command: up2date --register at the command line.
The GUI-based Red Hat Update Agent should appear. If you have already entered an account for this machine, enter the username and password on the login screen. If you haven't created an account, choose the new account option. Enter a username with the password provided by the instructor.
Once your account has been created, the Up2Date icon should show you a list of new packages that you can download for this computer. If you still experience problems, go to your Account settings from the main Red Hat page. Click on the Account Preferences link. (Receive email notifications should be selected.)
Go to the Systems tab. You should see an account for this system entitled "Demo." If not, you'll need to create a system profile for the machine. (If your user account shows another system profile for another machine, you may need to delete it and then recreate a profile for the current machine. Red Hat only permits you to have one updateable Demo Account for any given user account.
- If you haven't already done so, send the instructor an email message from your Yahoo account, including information on your machine number, username for your Red Hat account, and password.
"Customers come to this crossroads in throngs, day and night. Ninety percent of them go straight to the biggest dealership and buy station wagons or off-road vehicles. They do not even look at the other dealerships.
Of the remaining ten percent, most go and buy a sleek Euro-sedan, pausing only to turn up their noses at the philistines going to buy the station wagons and ORVs. If they even notice the people on the opposite side of the road, selling the cheaper, technically superior vehicles, these customers deride them cranks and half-wits.
The Batmobile outlet sells a few vehicles to the occasional car nut who wants a second vehicle to go with his station wagon, but seems to accept, at least for now, that it's a fringe player.
The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with bullhorns, trying to draw customers' attention to this incredible situation. A typical conversation goes something like this:
Hacker with bullhorn: "Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! It is invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety miles an hour while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!"
Prospective station wagon buyer: "I know what you say is true...but...er...I don't know how to maintain a tank!"
Bullhorn: "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!"