Installing CentOS 7
After failing to successfully install CentOS 7 in VirtualBox, I sighed and installed the system on my laptop.
I have Ubuntu MATE and Slackware installed on the laptop. I created an empty 20 GB partition to install CentOS 7.
The Anaconda installer is not the most intuitive. Browsing the web indicates I am hardly alone with this opinion. This is an installer designed by geeks for geeks. Oops. I mean system administrators.
I did not want to lose the two installed distros. I struggled with the installer to correctly select partitions. After several attempts I finally found success. Then I stumbled again while selecting the root (/) partition. The secret is selecting the Reformat check box. Until that happens the installer spits and sputters.
After the installation completed installing packages I waited for a prompt to configure the GRUB boot loader. No such prompt arrived. Perhaps I missed the option earlier in the installer configuration. I knew then that the CentOS installation had overwritten the disk MBR.
I had booted the CentOS 7 Live ISO from a USB flash drive. I noticed the installer referred to the laptop hard drive as sdb. I made no special note of this because I did not boot from the hard drive (sda).
When I rebooted, sure enough I was greeted with the new CentOS GRUB menu. Along with the horrible design of the partitioning scheme in the installer, I now was a tad irritated.
To rub proverbial salt into the wound, I could not boot a single system.
Inspecting the boot menu explained why. All of the boot partitions were labeled sdb and the disk as hd1 rather than sda and hd0.
I manually edited the Ubuntu MATE entry to hd0 and sda and finally booted. I guess the lesson is use a DVD image rather than USB to install CentOS 7.
I restored the GRUB boot menu to the MBR with grub-install.
I rebooted into CentOS 7. CentOS 7 uses GNOME and GDM. The GDM time was incorrect. I logged in and saw the same incorrect time. I changed the time. The difference implied something awry with using local time or UTC.
I get that CentOS is designed for enterprise users and not home or non technical users. Hence the name. I get that CentOS targets system administrators. Geeks designing for geeks. I get that a person learns about various speed bumps by repeating the installation a few times. That said, I found installing CentOS 7 a little more than bumpy.
Posted: Category: Usability Tagged: CentOS
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