Several years ago I started deploying GNU/Linux systems. The choice on the distribution fell on Red Hat and though this decision has been disputed on several occasions over the years, I never found definitive evidence for me to change, indeed. Among other things, I think Red Hat has undeniable merits: besides producing a solid Enterprise platform, it showed how to do real business with free software without ever betraying its principles. In fact, Red Hat continues to release its software under a free license.
In my work as a systems network/internet engineer I often have to rebuild or extend some packages, usually providing some network service. In this regard, one of the most important help that Red Hat has given me is the RPM package manager.
Lux is a set of RPM packages for Red Hat, chosen and prepared in order to be easily integrated in it without distorting it. For this reason, packages that are found in Lux are recompiled versions of Red Hat packages, with some patches or some extension (for this reason they are drop-in replacement for the corresponding Red Hat packages), or packages not found in Red Hat that integrate easily into it. For something more daring, you can take a look at Frank.
I use Lux on all my systems, while I look at Frank only when necessary for some reason.
Some packages in Lux are:
- kernel derived from RHEL6 kernel with KLIPS, ipt-ACCOUNT, IMQ scheduler, Julian Anastasov Jumbo patch and bridge-ipmode patch, netfilter-layer7 patch.
- iptables derived from RHEL6 iptables with ipt-ACCOUNT, IMQ scheduler, Julian Anastasov Jumbo patch and bridge-ipmode patch, netfilter-layer7 patch.
- postfix derived from RHEL6 postfix with VBA, cdb, spf, pam_dict patches.
- tinycdb to use with postfix with cdb patch.
- libspf2 to use with postfix with spf patch.
- ppp derived from RHEL6 ppp with ldap and dhcp third party plugins; a patch of my own to make ppp use chap-secrets and pap-secrets as a last resort verification password if the plugin’ own verification method fails; notification of the packet that triggered a connection, and pppidle util to be informed of idle timer status for ppp lines. It’s been some years since I last used these patches, so I would appreciate success or failuer reports.