What packages require a given package?

How do you determine what packages require a given package?

repoquery --tree-whatrequires <package>

For example, let's say you want to find out what packages depend on rdma:

$ repoquery --tree-whatrequires rdma
rdma-1.0-14.el6.noarch [cmd line]
\_ opensm-3.3.9-1.el6.x86_64 [1: rdma = 1.0-14.el6]
$

There you have it... opensm is the only package that requires rdma.

Source: Stack Overflow

RHEL5 Interactive Startup Without Pressing "i"

This was not easy information to come by, but once I dug through RHEL5's /etc/rc.sysinit it was obvious. Instead of pressing "i" when prompted for an interactive startup (ie, asking if you want to start each service), you can add "confirm" to the kernel command line in GRUB.

Upgrading RHEL from 5.3 to 5.4

I was having all sorts of strange problems while upgrading my test box from RHEL5.3 to RHEL5.4.  I did a search, but it didn't seem to turn up much... just a link to an unrelated problem, and a Russian website.  Well, I don't know Russian but I was able to decipher a hint: "yum clean all".  That did the trick.  I think I'll run that prior to upgrading all my production boxes.  Here's the error I was getting:

# yum update libX11
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
Skipping security plugin, no data
Setting up Update Process
Resolving Dependencies
Skipping security plugin, no data
--> Running transaction check
--> Processing Dependency: libX11 = 1.0.3-9.el5 for package: libX11-devel
---> Package libX11.i386 0:1.0.3-11.el5 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libX11-devel.i386 0:1.0.3-11.el5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB for package: openmotif22
--> Processing Dependency: /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB for package: openmotif
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
openmotif22-2.2.3-18.i386 from installed has depsolving problems
  --> Missing Dependency: /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB is needed by package openmotif22-2.2.3-18.i386 (installed)
openmotif-2.3.1-2.el5.i386 from installed has depsolving problems
  --> Missing Dependency: /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB is needed by package openmotif-2.3.1-2.el5.i386 (installed)
Error: Missing Dependency: /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB is needed by package openmotif22-2.2.3-18.i386 (installed)
Error: Missing Dependency: /usr/share/X11/XKeysymDB is needed by package openmotif-2.3.1-2.el5.i386 (installed)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: package-cleanup --problems
                        package-cleanup --dupes
                        rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

RHEL5 and Firewire

It took a while, but I finally figured out how to fully enable firewire in RHEL5.3.

Because firewire is still a "Technology Preview" in RHEL5.3, you must disable the blacklisting of the kernel module in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-firewire

# Comment out the next line to enable the firewire drivers
#blacklist firewire-ohci

But that's not all you have to do... Oh no... In order for the drive to be visible in your file manager (we use Xfce, but it also applies to Gnome), you must also mark the drive as "hotpluggable" in HAL. Why it isn't done so automatically, I don't know.

Create or update the file /etc/hal/fdi/policy/preferences.fdi with this code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- -*- SGML -*- -->
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
 <match key="@info.parent:@info.parent:@info.parent:info.linux.driver" string="firewire_ohci">
   <match key="info.category" string="storage">
     <match key="storage.drive_type" string="disk">
       <merge key="storage.hotpluggable" type="bool">true</merge>
     </match>
   </match>
 </match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

Now, I don't know if that's the best matching, but it works.