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Cent OS 8 Linux on Dell XPS 2-in-1

Recently "upgraded" from Cent OS 7 on my Dell XPS 2 in 1 to Cent OS 8. This has a slew of challenges and differences from similar efforts with other distros. This page will be a capture of my notes.

 

 

Tried the (not supported) in-place upgrade as per here:

Couldn't get it to "take".

Fortunately didn't hose my system because I had some off-stream 5.x kernel instances installed earlier trying to address my AMD GPU Pro issues with this laptop and Cent OS.

Eventually had to just make sure I backed up everything in my system, moved some personal data off the ROOT LVM partition into HOME, and had to format ROOT LVM fresh with fresh Cent OS 8 (Regular not Stream) install (Also continued with the encrypted partitions scheme I usually run).

Alas, Cent OS 8 is Gnome desktop (yuck!), with zero other options.

Because it was just released, there isn't an option to run Trinity Desktop (TDE) my preferred desktop, or really anything else at this point.

So have to live with (for now) Gnome but add a lot of Tweaks and other customizations just to make this desktop for dummies remotely usable for an uber power user for my high productivity days juggling 5 small businesses (one with over 100 staff members).

This means several days of lost productivity (was braced for it and waited for the holidays in case this was going to be the case, but still bummed), while I try to get things working in a productive way.

 

Install

 

burn iso to usb:

sudo dd if=~/iso/CentOS-8-x86_64-1905-dvd1.iso of=/dev/sdb status=progress && sync

 

 

Can't Add/update software from repositories

Another unexpected hiccup besides not TDE yet, is no claws-mail support directly available.

SO I started adding EPEL and NUX resources, but then couldn't add anything.

Would go to update my repos, and just get this:

dnf update
CentOS-AppStream-8 - Media                      0.0  B/s |   0  B     00:00    
Error: Failed to synchronize cache for repo 'c8-media-AppStream'

 

Fortunately this is easy solution, it is a legacy of the USB ISO (or DVD) being listed as a repository source and since no longer connected needs to be removed.

c8-media-AppStream is the repo for using the DVD iso mounted on one of the directories mentioned in /etc/yum/repos.d in teh c8-media.repo file. It's disabled by default so you would appear to have enabled it on purpose and now you need to disable it, either by editing the repo file and changing enabled=1 to 0 or by running

 dnf config-manager --disable c8-media-AppStream

Reference: https://www.centos.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=306091

 Also did so for c8-media-BaseOS for similar error.

dnf config-manager --disable c8-media-BaseOS

 Then ran updates, which lead to updated kernel and more already on the same day.

# dnf update
CentOS-8 - PowerTools                                                                  540 kB/s | 1.8 MB     00:03    
CentOS-8 - Plus                                                                        191 kB/s | 833 kB     00:04    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                                          14 kB/s |  20 kB     00:01    
Nux.Ro RPMs for general desktop use                                                    1.7 kB/s | 2.9 kB     00:01    
Dependencies resolved.
=======================================================================================================================
 Package                       Arch             Version                                     Repository            Size
=======================================================================================================================
Installing:
 kernel-plus-headers           x86_64           4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus            centosplus           1.6 M
     replacing  kernel-headers.x86_64 4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0
Upgrading:
 bpftool                       x86_64           4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus            centosplus           953 k
 python3-perf                  x86_64           4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus            centosplus           531 k

Transaction Summary
=======================================================================================================================
Install  1 Package
Upgrade  2 Packages

Total download size: 3.0 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/3): python3-perf-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64.rpm                        262 kB/s | 531 kB     00:02    
(2/3): bpftool-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64.rpm                             440 kB/s | 953 kB     00:02    
(3/3): kernel-plus-headers-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64.rpm                 382 kB/s | 1.6 MB     00:04    
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                                                  587 kB/s | 3.0 MB     00:05     
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                                                               1/1
  Upgrading        : python3-perf-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64                                          1/6
  Upgrading        : bpftool-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64                                               2/6
  Installing       : kernel-plus-headers-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64                                   3/6
  Obsoleting       : kernel-headers-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64                                                    4/6
  Cleanup          : python3-perf-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64                                                      5/6
  Cleanup          : bpftool-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64                                                           6/6
  Running scriptlet: bpftool-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64                                                           6/6
  Verifying        : kernel-plus-headers-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64                                   1/6
  Verifying        : kernel-headers-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64                                                    2/6
  Verifying        : bpftool-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64                                               3/6
  Verifying        : bpftool-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64                                                           4/6
  Verifying        : python3-perf-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64                                          5/6
  Verifying        : python3-perf-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.x86_64                                                      6/6

Upgraded:
  bpftool-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64         python3-perf-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64        

Installed:
  kernel-plus-headers-4.18.0-80.11.2.el8_0.centos.plus.x86_64                                                          

Complete!

 

Multimedia

 

 

 

Audio

 

 

Music

 

 

Video Driver(s)

 

 

 

AMD Radeon Drivers

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-amdgpu-unified-linux

 

 

 

 

 

 

Videos

 

 

 

Can't View Youtube videos

 

Firefox can't view Youtube videos. I can view recorded Youtube videos, but live streaming I get an error about can't play it, maybe missing plugins, etc.

"Your browser does not currently recognize any of the video formats available.

Click here to visit our frequently asked questions about HTML5 video".

 

Gstreamer already installed with plugins by default which works for recorded youtube videos, but apparently not live streaming.

 

To resolve need to:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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