RE: [cobalt-users] How to install Cobalt software on a regular PC

["Bob Noordam" <mac@xxxxxxxx>]

>
> > Is it possible to install Cobalt Qube 3 software (Cobalt
> Linux OS and
> > the other packages) on a regular PC.
> > If yes, what are the minimum hardware requiremets?
> >




Here is the basic howto for the RAQ550 OS on whitebox hardware. It misses
some details of packages which you will need to add after following it, but
you will end up with a speedy 550 at the end of this thingy. I'll post a
more complete howto page later this week at my website, including some
security patches you'll want.

Minimum hardware specs for a usuable machine with a few websites, K6-300,
128Mb, 10GB hdu, but be realistic. If you want heavy mysql/php apps or a lot
of websites, get an up to date machine.


Bob.



#
# R550 whitebox draft - H.P. Noordam
# www.dePoPo.net
#

The RAQ550 has been open sourced by SUN, and modified by the people of
CobaltQube.org into a system that can be installed on  a redhat 9 system.

This HOWTO shows the exact steps i took to change a vanilla RedHat 9 system,
into a system running the CObalt 550 GUI.

First, get the kit from http://open.cobaltqube.org/source/index.html
I used version 20040219 (19 feb 2004) but there are no doubt newer versions
in the meantime. YMMV.

I took a standard Compaq EVO D310 Machine, which is PIV based, with 512Mb
RAM and an integrated ethernet card. On it, i  installed the stock 3 disk
redhat 9 distro.
During the redhat 9 install, i set the following options;

install mode: text mode (no need for a K environment on a server today)
install type: server
512Mb swap at /dev/hda3
8Gb at /dev/hda2 in the ext3 file system format mount point /
8Gb at /dev/hda3 in the ext3 file system format mount point /home

Grub Bootloader, no password
Static IP, gateway, dns etc.
Security level: no firewall (I Always use external hardware firewalls on all
installs, i do not believe in running possibly  vurnerable software on the
very box you are trying to protect from vurnerable software.

Upon reboot, you should have a fully functional redhat 9 box, with internet
access.

Next, you need to add the following packages needed for the change into a
RAQ550

make a place to store the rpms with;
mkdir /root/rpms
Mount disk#1 with;
mount /dev/cdrom
cp /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS/* /root/rpms
Now, unmount the disk with "umount /dev/cdrom" and repeat these steps for
disk 2 & 3

Next, we can simply cd /root/rpms and install all needed packages

rpm -U imap-2001a-18.i386.rpm
rpm -U imap-devel-2001a-18.i386.rpm
rpm -U telnet-server-0.17-25.i386.rpm
rpm -U tcl-html-8.3.8-88.i386.rpm
rpm -U tcl-8.3.5-88.i386.rpm
rpm -U tk-8.3.5-88.i386.rpm
rpm -U expect-5.38.0-88.i386.rpm
rpm -U perl-CPAN-1.61-88.i386.rpm
rpm -U perl-DB_file-1.804-88.i386.rpm
rpm -U nss_db-2.2-20.i386.rpm
rpm -U pine-4.44-18.i386.rpm

next, we will modify the quota settings.
Type; pico -w /etc/fstab and edit the / mount point to make sure it looks
like;

LABEL=/home    /home      ext3   defaults,usrquota,grpquota  1 2

Type; mount -o remount /home
Type; quotacheck -c -u -g -a
Type; quotaon -aug



On to installing;

Upload the previously downloaded file to the server
Unpack the file with "tar -zxfv filename.tar.gz
cd into the created directory
run ./install.sh

You will see some initial checks, after which all packages will be installed
that make up your server.

Your RAQ550 can now be reached at http://your.ip/login
Both username and password are "admin"

#
# incomplete from here
#
Next, make a list of all services you expose to the internet (sendmail,
apache etc) and check for patches.


Lastly, sign up to the secunia security alert mailing list to keep informed
about RedHat security alerts that will affect  your box.