---
title: RHEL-8
description: PSI Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
lead: ""
date: 2020-10-06T08:48:23+00:00
lastmod: 2022-05-10T11:13:00+00:00
draft: false
images: []
toc: true
---
# Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

The current state of RHEL 8.6 support is very alpha. It is possible to install a system and install packages provided by Red Hat.
The configuration management is done with Puppet like for RHEL 7.

## Testing

It looks like it works already a lot out of the box, but no guarantee can be given unless your specfic setup has been tested. The epic [RHEL 8.6 Alpha Test](https://jira.psi.ch/browse/PSILINUX-93) lists the currently knowns issues. Please add your bugs there too.

## Major Known Issues

- 

## Major Missing Features

- default user home is local unless configured to be on AFS [PSILINUX-97](https://jira.psi.ch/browse/PSILINUX-97)
- security patches are automatically installed [PSILINUX-98](https://jira.psi.ch/browse/PSILINUX-98)
- minimal default installation, aka gem, git and postfix is not installed by default [PSILINUX-100](https://jira.psi.ch/browse/PSILINUX-100)

## Caveats

### Workstation Installation Takes Long and Seams to Hang
On the very first puppet run the command to install the GUI packages takes up to 10 minutes and it looks like it
is hanging. Usually it is after the installation of `/etc/sssd/sssd.conf`. Just give it a bit time.

### Missing or Replaced Packages

[List of packages removed in RHEL 8](https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html-single/considerations_in_adopting_rhel_8/index#removed-packages_changes-to-packages)

| RHEL 7 | RHEL 8 | remarks |
| ---    | ---    | ---     |
| `a2ps`   | recommends to use `enscript` instead | [`enscript` upstream](https://www.gnu.org/software/enscript/) [`a2ps` upstream](https://www.gnu.org/software/a2ps/)   |
| `blt` | - | [`blt` upstream](http://blt.sourceforge.net/), does not work with newer Tk version ([source](https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/page/BLT)) |
| `gnome-icon-theme-legacy` | - | used for RHEL 7 Icewm |
| ... | ... | here I stopped research, please report/document further packages |
| `devtoolset*` | `gcc-toolset*` | |
| `git-cvs` | - | `cvs` itself is not supported by RHEL8, but available through EPEL. Still missing is the support for `git cvsimport`. |

### Installing a Machine with YFS and an Old Package Snapshot Tag
After the `pli-firstboot` script it stopps due to errors (installed yfs kernel module version does not fit running kernel). Still it manages to install everything fine.  
So please restart the machine (so it loads the right kernel) and run `puppet agent` again to finally start and enable the `yfs-service`.

### AFS cache partition not created due to existing XFS signature
It can happen when upgrading an existing RHEL 7 installation that the puppet run produces
```
Error: Execution of '/usr/sbin/lvcreate -n lv_openafs --size 2G vg_root' returned 5: WARNING: xfs signature detected on /dev/vg_root/lv_openafs at offset 0. Wipe it? [y/n]: [n]
```
This needs to be fixed manually:
- run the complaining command and approve (or use `--yes`)
- run `puppet agent -t` to finalize the configuration



### "yum/dnf search" Gives Permission Denied as Normal User
It works fine beside the below error message:
```
Failed to store expired repos cache: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/cache/dnf/x86_64/8/expired_repos.json'
```
which is IMHO OK to not allow a normal user to do changes there.

## Documenatation

* [Installation (Alpha)](installation)
* [Package Management](packages)
* [Vendor Documentation](vendor_documentation)
