Parallels

Centos

The install was a total breeze. Download an iso, make a new VM of type redhat linux, turn it on, map the ISO to a device, install.

Adjusting the console size

Edit

/boot/grub/grub.conf

and append vga=XXX to the uncommented line that begins with 'kernel' so that it looks something like:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.EL ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 vga=791

Not sure where the 791 came from; found it on some forum.

Disable smartd

We don't need the 'smart' disk stuff, since Mac OS X handles all that

sudo find /etc/rc.d/rc* -name '*smartd*' | xargs rm

Virtual desktops

Make sure "Enable access for assistive devices" is disabled in the Universal Access prefpane in order to allow VirtueDesktops to work properly.

Package Management with yum

Create a yum repo from the Centos bin DVD iso

• Get a copy of CentOS-4.3-i386-binDVD.iso
• Map the iso to cd/dvdrom 1 using the Devices menu in Parallels
• Mount it

mount /media/cdrom

• Create the repo using the following steps

rpm --import /media/cdrom/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4
yum localinstall /media/cdrom/CentOS/RPMS/createrepo{TAB}
mkdir /var/local/dvd.repo
cd /var/local/dvd.repo
ln -s /media/cdrom/CentOS/RPMS RPMS
createrepo ./

• Create the /etc/yum.repos.d/dvd.repo file

vi /etc/yum.repos.d/dvd.repo

The dvd.repo file looks like:

[dvd]
name=Local DVD
baseurl=file:///var/local/dvd.repo
enabled=0

• Make a shell alias such as:

dvdyum='yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=dvd'

This allows you to use 'yum' to target normal / local repos, and 'dvdyum' to target only the repo made from the bin DVD. Anytime you use dvdyum, make sure the bin dvd is attached and mounted.

Common yum commands

yum search screen
yum install screen.i386