Linux Administration & Maintenance

Gentoo

On-Campus, we can speed installation/updates by using a local source; in your /etc/make.conf:

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.iat.sfu.ca/gentoo/"

An alternative is to use an NFS mount, but if NFS breaks or is unavailable... :-(
Robin: "For best performance, I recommend mounting musashi.iat.sfu.ca:/export/gentoo/distfiles on /mnt/distfiles and specifying that in your make.conf. The NFS route ensures that downloaded files go back into the mirror."

• TODO: Find other documents about how to maintain a Gentoo machine, primarily for Gordon and Mark.
• TODO: Custom gentoo configuration stuff that we use
  

LDAP

First, make sure you have the necessary packages on your system:

Emerge pam_ldap and nss_ldap autofs

There are three configuration files which must be correct:

/etc/ldap.conf
/etc/nsswitch.conf
/etc/autofs/auto.master

Rescuing a Gentoo System

boot from a CD, typically

boot: gentoo

enable swap

livecd root # swapon /dev/sda2

mount the main (root) partition, optionally the boot partition

livecd root # mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/gentoo
livecd root # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot

get some networking going

livecd root # dhcpcd &
livecd root # ifconfig eth0 up
livecd root # ifconfig  (verify we got an IP)

prepare for chrooting

livecd root # mount -o bind /proc /mnt/gentoo/proc
livecd root # mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
livecd root # mount -o bind /sys /mnt/gentoo/sys

set up a new environment root

livecd root # cd /mnt/gentoo
livecd gentoo # chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
livecd / # env-update
livecd / # source /etc/profile

Now, do your rescue work. Good luck!

To back out of the chroot, and check your fix(es)

/ # exit
livecd root # cd /
livecd root # umount /mnt/gentoo/boot /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo/dev /mnt/gentoo/sys /mnt/gentoo
livecd root # reboot

SUSE

On-Campus, we can speed installation/updates by using a local source:
nfs://export/mirror/suse

• TODO: Instructions for install with LDAP working
• TODO: Instructions for auto-update configuration

RedHat/Fedora

• TODO: Instructions for install with LDAP working

FreeBSD

• TODO: Instructions on configuring the firewall on Dreadnought