| How to Build a Free Enterprise Linux Desktop |
by Tom Adelstein (Aug. 24, 2004)
Foreword: Looking to deploy Linux in the enterprise without a price tag? In this DesktopLinux.com feature, Tom Adelstein teaches users how to put together an enterprise Linux desktop using freely available sources. Offering budget conscious users a guide for a Linux-based system suitable for business, the article highlights the similarities between Red Hat's legacy 7.3 software and current Enterprise Linux 3.0. Adelstein rebuilds servers running Red Hat 7.3 using RHEL source rpms and provides offers a step-by-step tutorial for companies that are searching for a reliable DIY Linux IT solution.
How to Build a Free Enterprise Linux Desktop
by Tom Adelstein
Two weeks ago, the JDShelp community project began moving our web sites to a dedicated host running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0. As soon as I began working on it remotely, I noticed a close resemblance to Red Hat 7.3 (RH 7.3). I had visited a few shops that used RH 7.3 as their development platform and had heard some rumors about the resemblance. Before now, I hadn't thought much about it.
As I began looking into the specifications and looking through newsgroups,I confirmed my suspicions. I even found an excellent "mini-howto" by Michael Redinger. In his introduction, he states that "this is about 'rebuilding a Linux server based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources'". He basically rebuilt ten servers running Red Hat 7.3 using RHEL source rpms.
I decided I could create a similar box on my private network, use it to make modifications, write database tables and applications. Developers prefer to write software on non-production systems, stage and test, then deploy. So this seemed like the perfect situation for me.
I had not thought much about using RH 7.3 since my experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux hadn't cost me anything in the past. I anticipated a cost benefit and decided to plunge forward. Curiosity had gotten the better of me.
I downloaded Red Hat 7.3 from Linuxiso.org, made CD's and installed the OS on a Pentium IV, 2.4 Ghz processor on an Intel 845 motherboard. Soon after the installation, I realized that RH 7.3 showed some age. It did not like the Intel 845 video chip at all. So, I only got a very bare version of X11 running.
Updating the Distribution
I soon started looking for a repository of updates. I found several including Ximian's Red Carpet. Initially, I could not use Red Carpet because I needed to update X11 to get my video working correctly and provide some important file dependencies.
I did find another excellent site called Ayo Fresh RPM's. I decided to use the site's YUM protocol (yum-1.0.3-3.rh.fr.i386.rpm).
Yellow Dog Updater, Modified -- or just "yum" for short, is a package manager for RPM Package Manager-compatible Linux systems. Yum is the standard tool for updating Fedora Linux. The home page of the YUM project says:
Yum is an automatic updater and package installer/remover for rpm systems. It automatically computes dependencies and figures out what things should occur to install packages. It makes it easier to maintain groups of machines without having to manually update each one using rpm.
Features include:
- Multiple Repositories
- Simple config file
- Correct dependency calculation
- Fast operation
- rpm-consistent behavior
comps.xml group support, including multiple repository groups
- Simple interface
Note: You can set up your own update server using Yellow Dog Updater, Modified. Two articles discuss how to do this including How to run your own yum repository and Creating a local yum repository. System administrators will like using yum because it gives them control over what they want to update.
I downloaded and installed yum and immediately began updating RH 7.3. Within less time than it took to install RH 7.3, I appeared to have an updated version with a new kernel. I rebooted and the system found some Intel 845 Chips with the exception of video.
I did additional research and discovered that I needed to upgrade X11 from RH 7.3's version 4.2 to 4.3. Unfortunately, advice from every post I found said that it either could not be done or that it would wound the distribution irreparably. So, I went to another site I had run across in my travels in hyperspace and located the Fedora Legacy Project where I found some interesting upgrades. The Fedora Legacy Project says on it's website:
The goal of The Fedora Legacy Project is to work with the Linux community to provide security and critical bug fix errata packages for select End of Life Red Hat Linux and Fedora Core distributions. This will allow for a longer effective life for those releases.
After reading the documentation, I decided to add their repositories to my yum.conf file. The instructions said:
If you're using yum, please add the following blocks to your/etc/yum.conf (these work for all supported releases of Red Hat Linux):
[base]
name=Red Hat Linux $releasever base
baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/os/$basearch
[updates]
name=Red Hat Linux $releasever updates
baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/updates/$basearch
[legacy-utils]
name=Fedora Legacy utilities for Red Hat Linux $releasever
baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/legacy-utils/$basearch
I ran #yum update
and the update ran again. This time, I obtained a number of different packages which appeared to have been hardened by the Fedora Legacy team. Additionally, I got another new kernel.
Note: You will see the term "hardened" in a couple of contexts related to Linux and other free variants of UNIX. Some people say they have hardened software packages by going through the sources and removing bugs and incompatibilities or adding static libraries. Others will say they have hardened a distribution by turning off all services such as FTP or Telnet and web serving. In the latter case, SSH is often the only service running.
After rebooting, the system seemed more responsive. I attempted to configure X11 again, but still wound up with only an 8 bit depth and 800x600 screen resolution. I felt dissatisfied with the desktop.
Attempting to Improve Screen Resolution
I went back to Ximian's site and downloaded and installed the Ximian desktop. I wanted to experiment to see if it would install and improve the screen resolution some. After several tries, the installation failed. I went back and enter # su - to see if being root instead of superuser would make a difference. It did and Ximian's desktop installed. But, the screen resolution did not improve.
After much digging and reading deeply into threads, I found drivers for the 845 Video card on the Intel site. I felt surprised because earlier, I searched the Intel site and only found USB 2 drivers for Linux. I downloaded the RPM and the tar.gz files. I attempted to install the RPM and got a basket filled with dependency errors. I felt like I was riding a roller coaster.
Next, I went to the source RPM site mentioned in Michael Redinger's mini howto and downloaded XFree86-4.3.0-35.EL.src.rpm. By building the source into binary rpm's, I felt it possible to simply upgrade X11 and perhaps provide the drivers for the Intel 845 video chip.
I used the rpm --rebuild command and watched XFree86-4.3.0-35.EL.src.rpm compile into a binary set of rpms. This took approximately thirty minutes. Once complete, I located the X11 set in the directory /usr/src/redhat/linux/RPMS/i386/.
Before installing the new X11 rpms, I stopped the graphical server by issuing the command #init 3. This took me to a command prompt. I upgraded X11 from 4.2 to 4.3 with the command #rpm -Uvh --nodeps *.rpm. Within approximately five minutes the installation process completed.
I used the Red Hat utility setup and reconfigured X11. Once complete, I issued the init 5 command and the Ximian desktop restarted. Only this time, I had a 24 bit depth and 1024X768 resolution at 75 Hz refresh rate. The Ximian desktop produced a clean, clear and high quality look and feel.
An Enterprise Quality Desktop
What makes this hack of RH 7.3 an enterprise quality desktop? To answer that question, let's define the difference between a popular Linux desktop and what people use in business and large organizations.
The Linux desktop receives consideration for enterprise deployment because of its acceptance among elite operating systems produced by IBM, HP, Sun, SGI, Microsoft and Sony under Common Criteria. What is Common Criteria? Simply, Certification in this area provides standards for security for mission-critical software. Common Criteria Certification provides a seal of approval recognized by government agencies and enterprise IT professionals. Countries that recognize the Common Criteria include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France and Japan.
Anchored by cross-platform productivity suites, such as OpenOffice.org, StarOffice and the Mozilla FireFox browser, Linux has gained acceptance in numerous heterogeneous environments. Version 3 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux was certified to meet EAL 2 of the Common Criteria Certification.
One of the aspects of achieving Common Criteria Certification for Linux involves versioning. Both Novell SuSE and Red Hat won their EALS based on platforms that are two generations old. That means RH 7.3 Linux was good enough two versions ago to be considered safe.
Some good examples of popular Linux are Mandrake 10, Novell SuSE Linux 9.1, Gentoo, Debian or Fedora Core 2, the latter previously being Red Hat's plain vanilla version used by most free software enthusiasts. Popular Linux is production-ready but is maintained by developers in the community updating and fixing code that is in production but not quite battle hardened.
With ongoing development activity, popular Linux resembles popular Windows. Windows Service Packs are the equivalent of cumulative maintenance programming fixes. Any given version of Windows is in maintenance mode, not in enterprise production-ready mode, after being released to the public. Once Windows reaches the space of a Linux or UNIX enterprise mode, Microsoft phases its version out.
New development on RH 7.3 has stopped. New development on RHEL 3.0 has also stopped. A look at their package version numbers will tell you this. That doesn't mean RHEL 3.0 does not undergo continuous improvement. In fact, it does.
By rebuilding RH 7.3 based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources, the underbelly of the distribution starts to look like an enterprise grade distribution, even though it is not Common Criteria Certified. When you add Ximian's Gnome 2.2 Desktop, you have added an older, reliable desktop somewhat similar to Sun's Java Desktop System (JDS). The current Ximian desktop cannot come close to the quality of JDS, but at least you can get close at no cost.
So this RH 7.3 hack isn't a certified enterprise desktop, but it will run dependably and will have community support for quite a while in the future. It also allows you to see how the enterprise people work and why their products have become so popular.
Concluding Remarks
In the event that you decide to build what some Linux enthusiasts might call a relic or a classic, give yourself about half of a day. If you like it, remember no warranty exists and you're doing as a hobbyist. If it turns out to run in your business for ten years or so, remember it didn't cost you anything.
A few screenshots (click to enlarge)
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Screenshot 3
About the Author
 Tom Adelstein lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife, Yvonne, and works as a Linux and open-source software consultant locally and nationally. He's the co-author of the upcoming book Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop, published by O'Reilly and Associates. Tom has written numerous articles as a guest editor for a variety of publications on Linux technical and marketing issues. His latest venture has him working as the webmaster for JDSHelp.org.
(Click here for further information)
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