Getting installed services in RHEL

Today I was asked how you could discover those services that are installed on a system.

For packages installed today;
rpm -ql $(rpm -qa --last | 
grep "$(date +'%a %d %b %Y')" | 
awk '{print $1}') | 
grep systemd | 
grep service | 
awk -F"/" '{print $NF}' | 
grep -v '@'

From the beginning of time;
rpm -ql $(rpm -qa --last | 

awk '{print $1}') | 
grep systemd | 
grep service | 
awk -F"/" '{print $NF}' | 
grep -v '@'

From using these you can then ask which are enabled on start up;

systemctl list-unit-files --type=service |

grep enabled |

egrep $(

  rpm -ql $(rpm -qa --last | 

  grep "$(date +'%a %d %b %Y')" | 

  awk '{print $1}') | 

  grep systemd | 

  grep service | 

  awk -F"/" '{print $NF}' | 

  grep -v '@' | 

  tr '\n' '|' | 

  sed 's/|$//'

)

Dead Icons on Mac OS X

Having used a Mac for the last 6 months again (how annoying), I went through the process of clearing it up ready for the next person to use (as I'd never personally own an Apple Mac, since I was the person who coined the term "Crapple Mac").

However, in the process of working out how to remove applications that were not installed through iTunes (I have no intention of putting my credit card details into a laptop I don't own, or to Apple), most of my applications were installed via brew.

I had the following shell script to install, search or delete my applications;

#!/bin/bash

if (( $# < 2 ))

then

echo "SYNTAX: $0 action package" >&2

echo "Where action is one of (search|install|uninstall)" >&2

exit 1

fi

action=$1

shift

package="$@"

case $action in

'install')

brew cask $action $package --force

;;

        remove|erase)

                brew cask uninstall $package

;;

*)

brew cask $action $package

;;

esac

So when coming to delete the applications were not always easy to remove with brew, as some were downloaded over the Internet.

So if brew odes not remove the application you can try one of the following 3 options;

1. The simple method of clicking on Launchpad and then click and hold on the application to remove.  All the icons will then wobble.  If you can remove the application here then an X will appear against the application.  Clicking it will allow you to remove it.
2. Open the application.  Then bring up the menu for the application in the dock so that you can "show in finder".  Then quit the application (don't just close, you need to quit it) and then drag the .app from Finder into the waste basket and then empty trash.
3. This final one will help remove application Icons where the application has gone, but the icon refuses to budge from Launchpad.  The following describes how to do this.

To remove an icon or application still showing in Launchpad that could not be remove using steps 1 or 2 do the following;

1. To find the application and see if it is in Launchpad run the following command

for x in $(find /private/var/folders -name *launchpad*)

do

  sqlite3 $x/db/db "SELECT * FROM apps;"

done | grep -i appName

2. In the 2nd column is the title.  This next command requires you to type the title in in the exact case.  So if for example you have an application called Thunderbird you would delete it as follows;

for x in $(find /private/var/folders -name *launchpad*)

do

  sqlite3 $x/db/db "DELETE FROM apps WHERE title='Thunderbird';"

done

Replacing Thunderbird with the title you got from Step 1.

Your launchpad will now start to look cleaner.

GPG Sharing encrypted files

Occasionally you want to share a secret file, be it a password, or some credentials, or even somethings else with colleague(s) over the unsecure internet or via Email.

gpg is a useful program for achieving this but it does require you to have the public key of the person you are intending to encrypt the file for, or a shared public key to which everyone has the private one.

You ENCRYPT: gpg -z0 --output message.gpg --encrypt --recipient “Person-B" message.txt

Colleague DECRYPT: gpg --output message --decrypt message.gpg

Making Live CDs with latest updates

Not too long back I bought a new laptop, and as always needed to put my favourite Linux OS on it to keep ahead of the enterprise version.  If you haven't guessed I'm referring to Fedora.  Being about 3 years ahead of what is about to hit RedHat is extremely useful.

However the laptop that I decided to buy, from pcspecialist looked like a Mac Airbook, or whatever they call their slimest one, but with the latest and greatest faster i7 6th Gen processor, etc.  So in short far superior to the Apple, but less than 1/2 the price at £620.

When it arrived, it was excellent - F23 installed, but after a short while it started to hang if it was stressed, so diverted over to Elementary OS, which although pretty, was a little old from a Kernel perspective and lacking some features.

Last weekend I had some time to sit down, since F23 wouldn't run as a Live USB stick from download I decided to build my own spin.  I've been building kickstart systems for a very long time, especially over networks and also on DVDs, however in recent times the process has changed a little since you can't get the entire OS DVD, but have to create a live one.

So using some useful sites around livecd-tools decided to install it and create F23 spin with all of the latest updates taken from rpmfusion.  Here is how it is done on a Fedora system;

1.Install livecd-tools

1. sudo dnf -y install livecd-tools fedora-kickstarts
1. The fedora-kickstarts will provide the basis for your files to build the livecd

2. Create a directory to perform the work and store your final ISO image

1. mkdir -p $HOME/livecds/fc23
1. I've added fc23 so that I can build different versions
2. I also created a script called $HOME/livecds/livecd so that I don't have to remember the options;

#!/bin/bash

# URL location

# https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_create_and_use_a_Live_CD

if (( $# < 3 ))

then

  echo "Syntax: $0 " >&2

  exit 1

fi

pathToKickstartFileks="$1"

tmpcacheLocation="$2"

cdLabel="$3"

livecd-creator --verbose --config="$pathToKickstartFileks" --fslabel="CDLabel" \

--cache="$tmpcacheLocation"

3. The main element to creating a live CD with the latest kernel, etc is to include the repositories of rpmfusion, and to add the necessary packages to the kickstart file.

1. Copy the example kickstart base file for Fedora 23 so that you can modify it;
1. cp /usr/share/spin-kickstarts/fedora-live-workstation.ks $HOME/livecds/fc23
2. Modify the kickstart file, changing the following to make it fit on an 8GB USB
1. part / --size 8192  --fstype ext4 --grow
1. The original only allows for a 4GB and doesn't have grow
2. Under the %packages section you can add your extra Groups or individual packages that you need.  Note if you are adding a group then something like "Development tools" should be written as development-tools
3. If you don't want a package then precede it with a hyphen (-)
1. e.g. -shotwell
4. You will also notice in this file the line;
1. %include fedora-repo.ks
2. Create this file with the following for F23, change version based on OS

repo --name=fedora --mirrorlist=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=fedora-23&arch=$basearch

repo --name=fedora-updates --mirrorlist=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=updates-released-f23&arch=$basearch

repo --name=fpmfusionfreerawhide --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mirrorlist?repo=free-fedora-rawhide&arch=$basearch

repo --name=rpmfusionnonfreerawhide --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mirrorlist?repo=nonfree-fedora-rawhide&arch=$basearch

repo --name=rpmfusionfree --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mirrorlist?repo=free-fedora-23&arch=$basearch

repo --name=rpmfusionfreeupdates --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mirrorlist?repo=free-fedora-updates-released-23&arch=$basearch

repo --name=rpmfusionnonfree --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mirrorlist?repo=nonfree-fedora-23&arch=$basearch

repo --name=rpmfusionnonfreeupdate --mirrorlist=http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mirrorlist?repo=nonfree-fedora-updates-released-23&arch=$basearch

repo --name=google --baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/x86_64

You'll note that I've also included Chrome.  Each repo is one complete line.  The key ones are the rpmfusion and the updates so that we get the latest and greatest software installed.

4. To build the ISO image simply run your livecd script from within the F23 directory;

1. $HOME/livecds/livecd ../fedora-live-base.ks ../cache F23-livecd
1. This command then connects with the relevant repositories to download the rpms and builds the DVD ISO image
2. You should watch the early output since it will tell you if you have any mistakes with package names or groups

5. Finally put the image on to you USB stick with;

1. dd if=F23-livecd.iso of=/dev/sdd
1. Where /dev/sdd should be changed to your USB drive
2. If you don't know how to find out then;
1. df -h
1. Get a list of all the Filesystems
2. Insert the USB stick
1. df -h
2. Look for the Filesystems that was not their previously
3. Unmount the USB stick so you can write to it with dd
1. sudo umount /dev/sdd

Troubleshooting

In most cases you are likely to see the following error if the partition size in the kickstart file is not large enough for the image.  If this is the case you will see;

Error creating Live CD : Unable to install: Could not run transaction.

Unmounting directory /var/tmp/imgcreate-vo3YLW/install_root

Losetup remove /dev/loop1

In the above case you should increase the part --size until the error no longer appears.

If you have an incorrect package you will see something like;

Retrieving http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/updates/testing/23/x86_64/repodata/d5d34f8bad2e14babefd4ff808715d34cdd5637475759a76c58852f211892340-primary.sqlite.xz ...OK

Skipping missing group 'Web Server'

Edit the fedora-live-base.ks file and modify the name in the %package section.

PCSpecialist Lafite II - Fedora 22 - Backlight fixed

I recently purchased the Lafite II from PCSpecialist  with a high spec;
- i7-6500U
- Intel 520 Core Skylake integrated graphics
- 8GB Ram
- 250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6GB/s (540MBs R/520MBs W)

URL: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/lafiteII/

This laptop uses the same Aluminimum chassis as the Apple MacBook 13.3, but the spec of the internals is obviously way more than that of the Apple and for 1/2 the price of their top spec.  Given that Apple still only use an inferior i5 processor (4th Gen) and not even an i7, this laptop is far superior.

I got it to run Linux as I always do, and in this case Fedora 22.  Installing F22 was the easiest install ever, and with the SSD doesn't take hours to do the fsck that it does on standard hard disks.  After installing from a live USB version of the OS the only extras required were;

1. Tether my phone to the laptop to do an update so that the wireless driver installed.  The base image for the live image does not include the wireless driver, and there is no ethernet connector unless you by a USB adapter (which I have for the USB 3.1 port).
2. The only other issue, even after the update was the screen brightness, which can be fixed through grub by adding the following;
1. Edit the file /etc/default/grub
   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rhgb quiet acpi_backlight=vendor i915.preliminary_hw_support=1"
2. Run the following command to update the boot loader;
   grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

After that the laptop is fully working, with all buttons.  The HDMI port though needs to be connected on boot to make it work with an external screen.  I also purchased HDMI to VGA connector since I have to connect to projectors that are so out of date, and also a mic/headphone combo cable.  The 3 cables (includes the ethernet/3 USB connector) were purchased from Amazon for less than £20.

Makes those of you with an Apple look like you are using something from the 1950s ;-)

Setting the keyboard and language RHEL and CentOS 7 command line

Setting the console keyboard RHEL and CentOS 7

When transferring VMs and systems built in one locale to another the keyboards become a problem.  In the earlier versions of Linux we simply changed a symlink or edited the /etc/sysconfig/keyboard file, but as of version 7 we now have to use localectl or edit the correct files to make the change permanent.

Having read various pages scattered across the Internet a lot of them talk about using the localectl command to change your keyboard and locale settings for a console installation.  However, the localectl command did not update the console keyboard and things such as the | key didn't work when changing from UK to US locale.  Even after a reboot the keyboard would still be wrong.

So how do you get the keyboard changed for the console in RHEL and CentOS 7 permanently?

Persistant Changing The Keyboard and Locale

Here we will assume that the system is currently set to en_GB.UTF-8 and uk keyboard.

1. Edit the /etc/locale.conf file and make sure the following is in it;

LANG="en_US.utf8"

2. Edit the /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file and change

vconsole.keymap=uk    change to    vconsole.keymap=us

Do that for all occurrences, a quick method is;

sed -i 's/vconsole.keymap=uk/vconsole.keymap=us/g' /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

3. Edit /etc/sysconfig/grub and change

vconsole.keymap=uk    change to     vconsole.keymap=us

Like step 2 you can use sed to perform the change as follows;

sed -i 's/vconsole.keymap=uk/vconsole.keymap=us/g' /etc/sysconfig/grub

By doing these steps and then rebooting your system your keyboard and locale would set itself to the new locals for the console.

Fedora 22 - What a mess!!!!

Well, having done the fedup upgrade, and a fresh install of Fedora 22, I must say I am extremely disappointed.  It's like having taken a backward step into the dark ages of the early days of Sun OS (when they used to re-write the OS from scratch).  What did you do guys?  Fedora 20 was the easiest and by far the fastest of the versions to date, both to install and to use.  Today I have lost days trying to get Fedora 22 to work from my nice stable Fedora 20, and boy have you messed it up.  Are you trying to lose people to the Debian side?  I hope you don't try to put any of this into RHEL 8 otherwise you'll lose them a major market share.

The problems;
1. First WTF - you do an fsck on every partition and disk, making us wait days before we can go and select the disks we want to use for the installation.  There are many complaints I see out their about slow installations and people blaming anaconda for kernel issues, when clearly you decide to run an fsck on every disk and partition.  I have 1TB of  disk space partitioned across about 6 or so partitions, this took nearly 1 hour before I could continue the install, and only found out by monitoring the processes and running strace on what you were doing.  COME ON - we're supposed to install sub 20 minutes, not take 3 hours to do an install.

RECOMMENDATION: Shoot the person who created the new installer.  Do they work for Microsoft or something?  A spy in the camp perhaps?

2. The fedup upgrade messed up the audio big time.  Instead of being able to plug in and out a head set I find that the audio recording works fine as long as you don't plug in an external headset, or unplug it if you booted it with the headset in.  The weird thing is that when you do this it for some reason decides to only record the last second or so of what you recorded last!  Another WTF moment, when Fedora 20 worked perfectly fine with plugging in and out a headset between the built-in and external jack sockets.
I'm still working on what the cause of this is, since I have to remember to boot my system with the headset in if I want to use it for recording or using skype, since as soon as I unplug I have no microphone capability.  The output audio is working (but only after installing from scratch).
This is without mentioning the freezes and hard reboots.

RECOMMENDATION: Use the driver code that worked previously for older kit, and add to it, not destroy it.

3. Although FedUp is a nice way of getting your system up to date, it unfortunately has the same problems as with any upgrade - existing files.  I'm a stickler and even more so for keeping my system config files in a directory of their own and symlinking to them.  So that way I can do a fresh update and a diff if need be to work in the new, and of course a good partitioning scheme.

4. Slow start up and shutdown.  Another backward step, thanks guys.  How slow do you really want this system to be?  I'm using an SSD and F20 came up faster and shutdown a lot quicker (apart from the pulse audio process that would take ages to stop if you didn't log out before shutting down).  Now, I don't know what you're doing, but come on, if the system doesn't shutdown in less than 30 seconds I want to know what you're playing at.

5. The Live image is a nice image, although takes ages to start up from USB, and too long for the installer, but it works nicely with audio and everything.  So why when I install it does it then break everything?

• I'm forced to create a new user as any old GNOME configs cause the log in screen to break, that's if you can get to the login screen.
• The login screen might not even appear - until after you update the system, which you have to do from single user mode since the whole damn system hangs at the login screen or before.
• After the update you can eventually get to the login screen, and start to get your system working, but don't take any of your old GNOME config, apart from specific applications

What I want to know is why you don't just transfer the working image directly to the hard disk?  If it works on the USB it should work exactly the same after I install to hard disk.  But oh, no.

On going work
Only a few points so far, as I've only just got 22 working today from a fresh install, and so far NOT impressed.  If the developers at Fedora keep going in this direction I will almost likely move to Debian, which for me would be a nightmare as since 1996 I've been a RedHat fan and promoted it everywhere with its stability and resilience, but all of a sudden we seem to be leaking crap into the development of the system and as an S.A. and infrastructure builder, would not currently be encouraging people to use the next RHEL 8 (if it's going to be based on this) into their environments.

Be warned!
So a warning to you all, don't believe what these magazine writers (online or otherwise) tell you.  If you do this stuff for real and use it every day for your main operating system, I would give F22 a miss, and wait until they can make it faster, other wise like me you will lose a day and a half of your life debugging the crap that has recently made the best operating system one that will quickly slip away if it continues on this path.

Update as of 1st September 2015

Having had F22 running for a few weeks now I've swapped gdm for kdm, and as per F20 improved boot up and shutdown speeds immensely. GDM has become so complex that the speed of start up and shutdown is painful. For those of you wanting to get back to an O/S that boots up and shutdown faster than windows or mac then i recommend changing to GDM but still using gnome for its features.