On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 12:38:11PM -0400, Larry Linder wrote:
> Boss asked us to take another look at Cent 8 because Cent 8 box in
> corner was using an IP address that is in middle of several machine
> tools.

Typical situation here, too. Mystery box using mystery IP address. To fix.

> 
> When you run ifconfig -a
>

No, these days, you don't. ifconfig is now obsolete, you are supposed to use the "ip" tool.

>
> no eth0 or eth1 but you find enp3s0
>

this is some scripts running at boot time and renaming eth0, etc into
these supposedly better enp3s0 names. in the past, you could disable it:

/bin/touch /etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules
/bin/rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

> 
> Something is very wrong.  The manual pages from RH dont work, other
> published directions are as if written for system zzz.  Cent help pages
> are useless as they cover Cent 7 and little of no Cent 8 real help.
> 

The admin guides at RedHat have instructions for setting up the network,
these guides usually show up in the google searches.

>
> Anybody who has actually changed the IP to static sucessfully - please
> tell me how they did it.
> 

I use the gui tool "nm-connection-editor". Setup a "wired connection",
set the IP address, netmask, gateway IP address, DNS IP address, "save".
No need to restart NetworkManager.

This tool seems to work okey.

(My main complaint is about the NetworkManager doing strange things
that are not documented and are impossible to debug. Latest example
is on a two-network-port machine, NetworkManager insisted in assigning
the static ip address to the port that has no network cable plugged in).

>
> The boss looked at the bill for switching to another OS that is not a
> derivative of RedHat and maybe a Macks and he wanted us to really look
> at Cent 8 again.  As a business it all the bottom line, there is nothing
> free.
>

I see very little practical difference between el7/el8 and Ubuntu LTS,
same systemd, same NetworkManager, etc. Big difference is in the package
managers, but now we have 3 (apt in ubuntu, rpm/yum in el7, rpm/dnf in el8).

>
> We have a considerable investment in SL from 4 to 7.6 and I would hate
> to think of the cost of just tossing it all.
> 

For, us, old OS obsoletes itself. Evolution of C++ is driving it, no C++11 in el6,
incomplete C++11 in el7 (no working std::regex). Same for php, python, etc.

>
> Is there an alternative desk top as Gnome as it is terrible, You can't
> have two terminals open at once at least on this system.
> 

No alternative desktop is very bad. Ubuntu has: gnome, mate, cinnamon, kde, lxde (I think), maybe a few more.

>
> As you all can guess is that I am an engineer and not an IT person.
> 

Thank goodness.

-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada