CentOS - How to set up CentOS 7.x

March 13, 2019 3 minutes read

Linux • CentOS

## Intro The [CentOS][1] Project is a community-driven free software effort focused on delivering a robust open source ecosystem. It is essentially the *free* (open-sourced) version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux - [RHEL][2]. In this tutorial I'll show you how to set up a basic installation of CentOS.

Download ISO image

First of all you’ll need the ISO image of CentOS, which will be burnt into either a DVD or an USB installation media. Using this link you’ll find all available images.

For this tutorial I’ll use the DVD version (CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-1810.iso). The DVD version contains most of the necessary packages to have a full working environment. For anything else, like third party proprietary software, will be found using the online repositories (e.g. EPEL).

Installation

Burn the ISO

Once you have downloaded the ISO imge, you can now burn it using a DVD burning software, or use an USB. You’ll need at least 4.7GB of free space (the size of a DVD), so any USB stick with 8GB or more will do the trick.

To copy thr content of the ISO image into the USB stick, you can use many different software. A couple of solutions I suggest to use are: 1. Etcher; or 2. Fedora Media Writer.

The former is the official reccommended software to burn RaspberryPi images to MicroSD, whereas the latter is the Fedora (hence Red Hat) native solution.

Boot the installation media

Once you have burnt the ISO, you can run the machine where you’ll install CentOS. Make sure the BIOS allows you to boot the recently created DVD or USB installation media. Usually, you can enter the BIOS by typing one of the standard keyboard keys (F2, F12, DEL or else, depending on your hardware).

When running the installation wizard, you’ll be asked to select the software needed to be installed. As Base Environment select GNOME Desktop, whereas in the Add-Ons menu select Development Tools. This is absolutely not mandatory, as CentOS comes with a variety of Desktop Environments (e.g. Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXDE, and many others.) However, Gnome is the official DE for CentOS (and Fedora, RHEL, ubuntu, amongst others) ensuring a fast, reactive and aestethically cool work environment. The Development Tools will make sure your operating system has all the basic libraries needed to compile common packages.

Partitioning the disk

This is very dependant on the use you will do of the machine and its hardware configuration. In general, you will need to choose the disks that will be used by the OS (make sure all the desired drives are selected). Then, once the partitioning GUI is open, click on Click here to create them automatically.

Once it’s done, click on Done. You might need to accept the proposed configuration after clicking it.

Now you are ready to start the actual installation.

OS Configuration

Once the OS has been installed, and in order to install additional software (e.g. VLC), you need to add the software repositories. Run the following command:

sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm -y

Update the system:

sudo yum update -y

Done! You have now a fully operational and up-to-date CentOS machine.

Any comments? Let me know!