How to convert CentOS 6.0 to Scientific Linux 6.x

Install the Scientific Linux 6.x yum repositories:
rpm -ivh http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6x/i386/os/Packages/yum-conf-sl6x-1-1.noarch.rpm

Install the required GPG keys:
– for i386 arch:
rpm -ivh --force http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6x/i386/os/Packages/sl-release-6.1-2.i686.rpm

OR

– for x86_64 arch:
rpm -ivh --force http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/6x/x86_64/os/Packages/sl-release-6.1-2.x86_64.rpm

Update from CentOS 6.0 to Scientific Linux 6.x using yum:
yum clean all
yum update

Remove some old packages:
rpm -e centos-release
rpm -e yum-plugin-fastestmirror

Reboot and enjoy!

Posted by at 11:34 pm on September 2nd, 2011. 5 comments... »
Categories: Linux. Tags: , , , , .

5 comments.

  1. How do you get the themes to change. All of my boot screens and logos still reflect Centos.

    Posted by senecca on September 16th, 2011.

  2. The boot screens and logos are in the redhat-logos package. Running yum distro-sync should replace the CentOS redhat-logos package with the SL one.

    The list of packages modified by CentOS is here. To replace the CentOS package with the SL one please run yum reinstall package.

    Run rpm -qa --qf "%{NAME} %{VENDOR}\n"|grep CentOS to see the packages created by CentOS. It is not necessary to reinstall all of these packages, CentOS and Scientific Linux’s aim is to be binary compatible with RHEL.

    Posted by Cristian Bradiceanu on September 17th, 2011.

  3. Thank you so much, you’re a lifesaver!

    Posted by Rene on September 30th, 2011.

  4. Thanks for the heads up that this was possible Cristian!

    Quick and dirty for loop to reinstall all of the CentOS packages if people are that way inclined 😉

    for i in `rpm -qa –qf “%{NAME} %{VENDOR}\n” |\
    grep -i centos | awk ‘{ print $1 }’`
    do yum -y reinstall $i
    done

    Posted by Jay on October 26th, 2011.

  5. You’re welcome Jay.

    I think it does not make much sense to reinstall all packages. Both CentOS and Scientific Linux aim to be binary compatible with RHEL. Anyway, all update packages come from the Scientific Linux repository after the “conversion”.

    You can see the list of changed packages compared to upstream:

    Scientific Linux 6.0 Release Notes
    Scientific Linux 6.1 Release Notes
    CentOS 6.0 Release Notes

    You may want to reinstall only the modified packages. This may be (partially) achieved using yum distro-sync.

    Posted by Cristian Bradiceanu on October 27th, 2011.