I was given a test machine at work, with RHEL5 already installed; I didn't get the install media with it. I discovered a needed package was missing, but only the source RPM is available from Red Hat (again, would need the media for the binaries).

Once I tried to install from the source, I discovered that the -b option isn't available to me in the rpm command. Nor was --build in yum. I then tried a simple "gcc" from the command line: command not found.

I've concluded the OS was installed without any development options; is that a fair bet? If so, is there a way I can get those options and install them without the install media? Getting those would involve them being shipped to me halfway across the country and there isn't much time available on this task.

Am I in a catch 22?

Many thanks in advance.

Hi -

Well, clearly you need to either have an Internet connection, or get access to *some* kind of media. Surely you can smuggle a CD into your computer room

But given that, all you need to do is:
'Hope that helps .. PSM

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Thanks for responding. You might be a wee ahead of me, still.

/etc/yum.repos.d is a directory, how am I supposed to update it?

I have the machine on the net, but don't know where I'd get the binaries I need (they'd have to be binaries to start, since I can't compile yet).

Once I do get things like gcc installed, does one of these steps replace rpm and yum with versions that understand the build arguments? The current ones--for example, "rpm -b" say that is an invalid attribute so I'm assuming the build environment replaces them with different versions? The instructions I have for installing the source RPMs all involve using those arguments with rpm and yum.

Many thanks!

Contact RH, this type of thing is exactly what your subscription pays for. Yes, they do make the binaries available(online) to those with a subscription.


Normally, you do a 'yum install whatever'(as root) and yum takes care of the rest for you.

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Okay, I'll have to contact my home office for that, they shipped this to me pre-installed without any supporting documents, certificates, serial numbers, or whatever it is I'd need to get RH on board.

I've tried "yum install" on several things, this is an example of what I get:

[root@linux1 ~]# yum install gcc
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
No package gcc available.
Nothing to do

Thanks again.

Yep, that message means the machine is not registered with RH. You either need to register the machine ($) or switch to Centos. Centos is RHEL with the logos stripped out. Unlike RHEL it is free to download/update and is binary compatible with RHEL. Any book/howto for RHEL is 99.9% applicable to Centos (mostly the addresses of the base repos being the difference, 3rd party repos work for both).

1 members found this post helpful.

This was supposed to be a fully-licensed rig they sent me, and I don't have the option of departing from RHEL5. I've pinged my head office asking them to get it registered. If it were up to me I'd be doing this in Fedora Core, personally, because it's an SELinux project and that's the distribution NSA seems to favor based on all the literature.

Really appreciate you taking time to help out; thanks again.

The problem with Fedora is that any one version is only supported for 13months, after that they officially advise a clean install(no updates of any kind after that either). On a desktop that is ok but for a server/production machine(or machines) that is just too much of a PITA to go through every 13months. The other thing to realize is that Fedora is essentially the development branch of RH. RHEL4 was based on FC3, RHEL5 on FC6. RHEL6 should have been based on Fedora 9, but Fedora ran off the tracks and has not been stable(enough) to base a new RHEL on. I thought when F11 was released it was the thing, but no. F12 is now out, so maybe it will be stable enough. The good news is that since RHEL6 is now over a year behind schedule, support for RHEL5 should be pushed beyond 2014, hopefully.

That msg does not mean it's not registered; it would say so if it was unregistered.
Start with (as root)

yum update

If you have the GUI, then use that (Add/Remove SW) to install the dev tools, otherwise read

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/rhel-ce...command-howto/ and see 'yum grouplist' section eg

yum groupinstall "Development Tools"

See also http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-2531

Bookmark this http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_boo...ion/index.html to manage your system.

I should have clarified. RH has several subscription levels. Some include the development stuff and some do not. If you have a lower level subscription(development stuff not included) it will spit out the response your see. In the repo you are cleared for GCC does not exist, so there is nothing to do.