VirtualBox running CentOS 7 Notes

April 2020 - Upgrade to CentOS 7.8:

Upgrade worked with no issues

September 2019 - Upgrade to CentOS 7.7:

Best practice is to clone a VM before upgrading so you have a clean starting point.

Got these errors upon trying to upgrade:

Error: Package: 1:vlc-core-2.2.5.1-2.el7.nux.x86_64 (@nux-dextop)
           Requires: libfreerdp-rail.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Removing: freerdp-libs-1.0.2-15.el7_6.1.x86_64 (@updates)
               libfreerdp-rail.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Updated By: freerdp-libs-2.0.0-1.rc4.el7.x86_64 (base)
               Not found
Error: Package: 1:vlc-core-2.2.5.1-2.el7.nux.x86_64 (@nux-dextop)
           Requires: libfreerdp-channels.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Removing: freerdp-libs-1.0.2-15.el7_6.1.x86_64 (@updates)
               libfreerdp-channels.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Updated By: freerdp-libs-2.0.0-1.rc4.el7.x86_64 (base)
               Not found
Error: Package: 1:vlc-core-2.2.5.1-2.el7.nux.x86_64 (@nux-dextop)
           Requires: libfreerdp-codec.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Removing: freerdp-libs-1.0.2-15.el7_6.1.x86_64 (@updates)
               libfreerdp-codec.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Updated By: freerdp-libs-2.0.0-1.rc4.el7.x86_64 (base)
               Not found
Error: Package: 1:vlc-core-2.2.5.1-2.el7.nux.x86_64 (@nux-dextop)
           Requires: libfreerdp-kbd.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Removing: freerdp-libs-1.0.2-15.el7_6.1.x86_64 (@updates)
               libfreerdp-kbd.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Updated By: freerdp-libs-2.0.0-1.rc4.el7.x86_64 (base)
               Not found
Error: Package: 1:vlc-core-2.2.5.1-2.el7.nux.x86_64 (@nux-dextop)
           Requires: libfreerdp-gdi.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Removing: freerdp-libs-1.0.2-15.el7_6.1.x86_64 (@updates)
               libfreerdp-gdi.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Updated By: freerdp-libs-2.0.0-1.rc4.el7.x86_64 (base)
               Not found
Error: Package: 1:vlc-core-2.2.5.1-2.el7.nux.x86_64 (@nux-dextop)
           Requires: libfreerdp-utils.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Removing: freerdp-libs-1.0.2-15.el7_6.1.x86_64 (@updates)
               libfreerdp-utils.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Updated By: freerdp-libs-2.0.0-1.rc4.el7.x86_64 (base)
               Not found
Error: Package: 1:vlc-core-2.2.5.1-2.el7.nux.x86_64 (@nux-dextop)
           Requires: libfreerdp-core.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Removing: freerdp-libs-1.0.2-15.el7_6.1.x86_64 (@updates)
               libfreerdp-core.so.1.0()(64bit)
           Updated By: freerdp-libs-2.0.0-1.rc4.el7.x86_64 (base)
               Not found
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

Solution:

# yum remove vlc

Then Install VLC

Update hostname to centos7.7

Then, test VM upgrade from CentOS 7.6 to 7.7 worked OK and got full-screen graphics with Guest Additions v 6.0.10. 2 other VMs upgraded OK, but Guest Additions v6.0.12 will not install properly. Newest kernel is kernel-3.10.0-1062.1.1.el7.x86_64 but had to boot into 3.10.0-957.27.2.el7.x86_64 to get full screen display to work.

Problems:

Guest Additions troubleshooting:

Python3 fix to use EPEL instead of IUS repo:

# yum remove python36u
# yum remove ius-release
# yum install python3
# yum install python3-devel

December 2018 - Upgrade to CentOS 7.6:

Best practice is to clone a VM before upgrading so you have a clean starting point.

Got these errors upon trying to upgrade:

Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: marco-1.16.1-3.el7.x86_64 (@epel)
         Requires: libgtop-2.0.so.10()(64bit)
         Removing: libgtop2-2.34.2-2.el7.x86_64 (@base)
             libgtop-2.0.so.10()(64bit)
         Updated By: libgtop2-2.38.0-3.el7.x86_64 (base)
            ~libgtop-2.0.so.11()(64bit)
Error: Package: mate-applets-1.16.0-1.el7.x86_64 (@epel)
         Requires: libgtop-2.0.so.10()(64bit)
         Removing: libgtop2-2.34.2-2.el7.x86_64 (@base)
             libgtop-2.0.so.10()(64bit)
         Updated By: libgtop2-2.38.0-3.el7.x86_64 (base)
            ~libgtop-2.0.so.11()(64bit)
Error: Package: mate-disk-usage-analyzer-1.16.1-1.el7.x86_64 (@epel)
         Requires: libgtop-2.0.so.10()(64bit)
         Removing: libgtop2-2.34.2-2.el7.x86_64 (@base)
             libgtop-2.0.so.10()(64bit)
         Updated By: libgtop2-2.38.0-3.el7.x86_64 (base)
            ~libgtop-2.0.so.11()(64bit)
Error: Package: mate-system-monitor-1.16.0-1.el7.x86_64 (@epel)
         Requires: libgtop-2.0.so.10()(64bit)
         Removing: libgtop2-2.34.2-2.el7.x86_64 (@base)
             libgtop-2.0.so.10()(64bit)
         Updated By: libgtop2-2.38.0-3.el7.x86_64 (base)
            ~libgtop-2.0.so.11()(64bit)
You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

Success with the following steps using libgtop2-2.36.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm:

# yum remove libgpod libgtop2
# yum -y update
# wget ftp://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/archive.fedoraproject.org/fedora/linux/releases/26/Workstation/x86_64/os/Packages/l/libgtop2-2.36.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh libgtop2-2.36.0-1.fc26.x86_64.rpm
# yum install marco mate-applets mate-control-center mate-desktop mate-dictionary mate-disk-usage-analyzer mate-panel mate-panel-libs mate-session-manager mate-system-monitor

Rebooted, updated Guest Additions running on VirtualBox v5.2.22 but full-screen (Host+F) is not working properly.

* An option may be to use Kernel version 4)

Video problem discussion solved in test build.

But Mouse focus problem crops up again. Also see ticket 17827

Note: Bug report for mouse problem in RHEL and CentOS has been submitted

I added comments about the video problem to ticket 18093.

September 2017 - Upgrade to CentOS 7.4:

Best practice is to clone a VM before upgrading so you have a clean starting point.

Right before upgrading to v7.4 I got an error due to a conflict between gstreamer1-plugins-base-1.10.4-1.el7.x86_64 and gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-1.4.5-6.el7_3.x86_64. This seemed to be caused by the "totem" application but it was resolved in CentOS 7.4. I found a temporary workaround in 7.3 was to remove the RPM gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free which allowed other packages to update:

# yum remove gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free

However, when CentOS 7.4 became available I got another error:

Package dependency errors
Error: Package: libgpod-0.8.3-14.el7.x86_64 (@epel)
         Requires: libplist.so.1()(64bit)
         Removing: libplist-1.10-4.el7.x86_64 (@base)
             libplist.so.1()(64bit)
         Updated By: libplist-1.12-3.el7.x86_64 (base)
            ~libplist.so.3()(64bit)
Error: Package: libgpod-0.8.3-14.el7.x86_64 (@epel)
         Requires: libusbmuxd.so.2()(64bit)
         Removing: usbmuxd-1.0.8-11.el7.x86_64 (@base)
             libusbmuxd.so.2()(64bit)
         Obsoleted By: usbmuxd-1.1.0-1.el7.x86_64 (base)
             Not found
Error: Package: libgpod-0.8.3-14.el7.x86_64 (@epel)
         Requires: libimobiledevice.so.4()(64bit)
         Removing: libimobiledevice-1.1.5-6.el7.x86_64 (@base)
             libimobiledevice.so.4()(64bit)
         Updated By: libimobiledevice-1.2.0-1.el7.x86_64 (base)
            ~libimobiledevice.so.6()(64bit)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
 

Removing this package allowed the upgrade to proceed:

# yum remove usbmuxd

But note these are the dependent packages that get removed:

Removing:
usbmuxd                                            x86_64               1.0.8-11.el7                   @base                  186 k
Removing for dependencies:
brasero                                            x86_64               3.12.1-2.el7                   @base                   11 M
grilo-plugins                                      x86_64               0.2.14-8.el7                   @base                  1.5 M
gvfs-afc                                           x86_64               1.22.4-8.el7                   @base                  148 k
kactivities                                        x86_64               4.10.5-3.el7                   @base                  1.1 M
kate-part                                          x86_64               4.10.5-4.el7                   @base                  7.7 M
kde-plasma-networkmanagement                       x86_64               1:0.9.0.9-7.el7                @base                  1.4 M
kde-plasma-networkmanagement-libs                  x86_64               1:0.9.0.9-7.el7                @base                  5.3 M
kde-plasma-networkmanagement-openvpn               x86_64               0.9.0.9-3.el7                  @epel                  153 k
kde-plasma-networkmanagement-vpnc                  x86_64               0.9.0.9-3.el7                  @epel                  112 k
kde-runtime                                        x86_64               4.10.5-8.el7                   @base                   14 M
kde-runtime-drkonqi                                x86_64               4.10.5-8.el7                   @base                  518 k
kde-runtime-libs                                   x86_64               4.10.5-8.el7                   @base                  5.0 M
kdelibs                                            x86_64               6:4.14.8-6.el7_3               @updates                41 M
kdelibs-ktexteditor                                x86_64               6:4.14.8-6.el7_3               @updates               272 k
kdepimlibs                                         x86_64               4.10.5-4.el7                   @base                  8.6 M
kdepimlibs-kxmlrpcclient                           x86_64               4.10.5-4.el7                   @base                   62 k
libgpod                                            x86_64               0.8.3-14.el7                   @epel                  898 k
libimobiledevice                                   x86_64               1.1.5-6.el7                    @base                  383 k
mate-applets                                       x86_64               1.16.0-1.el7                   @epel                   16 M
mate-power-manager                                 x86_64               1.16.2-1.el7                   @epel                  7.4 M
nepomuk-core                                       x86_64               4.10.5-5.el7                   @base                  1.7 M
nepomuk-core-libs                                  x86_64               4.10.5-5.el7                   @base                  1.1 M
rhythmbox                                          x86_64               3.3.1-5.el7                    @base                   14 M
tracker                                            x86_64               1.2.7-2.el7                    @base                  5.2 M
upower                                             x86_64               0.99.2-1.el7                   @base                  417 k

After I updated to CentOS 7.4 I was able to reinstall totem without any issues.

VLC also installs OK and it uses the Nux Desktop repository.

An updated mate-themes RPM was released to fix badly-formatted pull-down menus (ex. mate-terminal).

Mutt stopped sending emails on cron and it was reported on Stack Overflow:

Bad IDN in "from": 'machine_name'

The RHEL 7.4 package is mutt-1.5.21-27.el7.x86_64 (in CentOS 7.3 it was mutt-1.5.21-26.el7.x86_64). Downloaded and installed mutt-1.6.2-1.fc22.x86_64.rpm from rpmfind.net as a workaround.

On the host machine, samba was upgraded from v4.4 to v4.6 which prevented authentication to the shares.

June 2017 - Adding a CAC smart card:

October 2016:

September 2016:


When first setting up the VM with Oracle VirtualBox, you may see “failed to access perfctr msr” error appears at initial boot. But the program continues installing normally after several seconds.

CentOS 7 Netinstall Guide

RedHat 7 Disk Partitioning Guide

Disk partitioning used the following, where system RAM was 1536 MB and total disk size was 15GB:

CentOS 7 mirror: http://mirrors.sonic.net/centos/7/os/x86_64/

yum install wget

Follow instructions to Install MATE Desktop

Note that there might be a problem with installing the "Development Tools" group. If so, follow these instructions:

# yum groupinfo -v "Development Tools"
# yum groups mark install -v "Development Tools"
# yum list updates  (note: you will see a bunch of packages to install now)
# yum -y update

Continue with the rest of the MATE desktop installation steps.

Proceed with CentOS 7 Migration Notes

Before migrating users' $HOME, make a test user on CentOS 7 and on CentOS 6. Login to each graphically. See if the hidden files have changed format and use that info when migrating the $HOME directories.

Remove open-vm-* packages as they are not needed on non-VMWare machines:

After everything is configured make a clone and deploy as needed:

For network start/stop failure messages: