Skip to main content
Redhat Developers  Logo
  • Products

    Featured

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      Red Hat Enterprise Linux Icon
    • Red Hat OpenShift AI
      Red Hat OpenShift AI
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI
      Linux icon inside of a brain
    • Image mode for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      RHEL image mode
    • Red Hat OpenShift
      Openshift icon
    • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
      Ansible icon
    • Red Hat Developer Hub
      Developer Hub
    • View All Red Hat Products
    • Linux

      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      • Image mode for Red Hat Enterprise Linux
      • Red Hat Universal Base Images (UBI)
    • Java runtimes & frameworks

      • JBoss Enterprise Application Platform
      • Red Hat build of OpenJDK
    • Kubernetes

      • Red Hat OpenShift
      • Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift
      • Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization
      • Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed
    • Integration & App Connectivity

      • Red Hat Build of Apache Camel
      • Red Hat Service Interconnect
      • Red Hat Connectivity Link
    • AI/ML

      • Red Hat OpenShift AI
      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI
    • Automation

      • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
      • Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed
    • Developer tools

      • Red Hat Trusted Software Supply Chain
      • Podman Desktop
      • Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces
    • Developer Sandbox

      Developer Sandbox
      Try Red Hat products and technologies without setup or configuration fees for 30 days with this shared Openshift and Kubernetes cluster.
    • Try at no cost
  • Technologies

    Featured

    • AI/ML
      AI/ML Icon
    • Linux
      Linux Icon
    • Kubernetes
      Cloud icon
    • Automation
      Automation Icon showing arrows moving in a circle around a gear
    • View All Technologies
    • Programming Languages & Frameworks

      • Java
      • Python
      • JavaScript
    • System Design & Architecture

      • Red Hat architecture and design patterns
      • Microservices
      • Event-Driven Architecture
      • Databases
    • Developer Productivity

      • Developer productivity
      • Developer Tools
      • GitOps
    • Secure Development & Architectures

      • Security
      • Secure coding
    • Platform Engineering

      • DevOps
      • DevSecOps
      • Ansible automation for applications and services
    • Automated Data Processing

      • AI/ML
      • Data Science
      • Apache Kafka on Kubernetes
      • View All Technologies
    • Start exploring in the Developer Sandbox for free

      sandbox graphic
      Try Red Hat's products and technologies without setup or configuration.
    • Try at no cost
  • Learn

    Featured

    • Kubernetes & Cloud Native
      Openshift icon
    • Linux
      Rhel icon
    • Automation
      Ansible cloud icon
    • Java
      Java icon
    • AI/ML
      AI/ML Icon
    • View All Learning Resources

    E-Books

    • GitOps Cookbook
    • Podman in Action
    • Kubernetes Operators
    • The Path to GitOps
    • View All E-books

    Cheat Sheets

    • Linux Commands
    • Bash Commands
    • Git
    • systemd Commands
    • View All Cheat Sheets

    Documentation

    • API Catalog
    • Product Documentation
    • Legacy Documentation
    • Red Hat Learning

      Learning image
      Boost your technical skills to expert-level with the help of interactive lessons offered by various Red Hat Learning programs.
    • Explore Red Hat Learning
  • Developer Sandbox

    Developer Sandbox

    • Access Red Hat’s products and technologies without setup or configuration, and start developing quicker than ever before with our new, no-cost sandbox environments.
    • Explore Developer Sandbox

    Featured Developer Sandbox activities

    • Get started with your Developer Sandbox
    • OpenShift virtualization and application modernization using the Developer Sandbox
    • Explore all Developer Sandbox activities

    Ready to start developing apps?

    • Try at no cost
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Videos

Getting started with Red Hat Enterprise Linux development on Parallels Desktop

 

October 13, 2016
Earl R. Lapus
Related topics:
Linux
Related products:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Share:

    I've recently gotten hold of a developer subscription of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The following are the steps I took to have a minimal RHEL installation as a Parallels Desktop virtual machine guest. My simple goal is to have a local, ready-to-use RHEL box that I can use to try stuff out. The items below may be well suited for new RHEL developers like myself.

    Installation

    Preparing the Virtual Machine

    First thing to do is to prepare a Parallels Desktop virtual machine. All configuration options for the virtual machine is up to you. As for me, I just made sure it fits with the minimum requirements for a RHEL install.

    Tip: When Creating the Parallels Desktop Virtual Machine, it would be better to disable the Express Install option. This allows you to control everything performed during installation.

    Next, once the virtual machine is ready, boot the installation in text mode. To do this, press tab on the boot screen and append linux text at the end of the boot command.

    add-linux-text-boot-params

    Then, press enter and to boot to the installation configuration screen.

    Installation Destination and Partitioning.

    On the main install screen, choose option 5 (Installation Destination). Since this is a virtual machine, you can opt to use the entire disk image. Also, it is easier to go with the default Partition Scheme which is 3 LVM.

    destination-disk partition-scheme partitioning-disks

    Next,  set your super secret password. That is option 8 (Root Password) in the install screen.

    root-password

    For the timezone, select option 2 (Timezone settings), set this to the appropriate value based on where you are located.

    timezone-settings1 timezone-settings2

    Lastly, select option 4 (Software Selection), just choose the default Minimal Install.

    software-selection

    That is enough to get an install going. Next, press b in the main Installation menu to begin installation.

    Setup

    On first boot, login as root.

    first-login

    Configure the network interface

    Now that we have a minimal install, the next thing to configure at this point is the network. Check the network interface name detected on boot. To do this run ip addr show. In my case, the network interface name is eth0.

    ip-addr-show-no-ip

    The next step is to edit the config file for the interface. Since I already know the interface name, it follows that I need to edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifconfig-eth0. In the file, all settings were already correct except for ONBOOT=no.

    edit-eth0-config eth0-config-values

    I simply replaced that to yes, and saved the file. For the changes to take effect, I restarted the network by running systemctl restart network.

    systemctl-restart-network

    Once the network is up and running, the box needs to be registered. This is required to install and update packages on your box.

    Configure RHEL subscription

    To check the current status of the machine, you can issue the command subscription-manager status. At this time, the Overall Status would most likely be Unknown.

    initial-subscription

    To register, just issue the command subscription-manager register. This command will prompt for a valid RedHat developer credential.

    regsiter

    After running the register command, you need run subscription-manager attach. This links the current machine to the registered account.

    attach

    After this, you can verify the subscription by running subscription-manager status again. And, you can also see more information by running subscription-manager list.

    subscription-status

    At this point, it already possible to update your repositories and install packages that you need for development.

    Installing Parallels Tools

    Parallels Tools has many useful features for managing your virtual machine. Personally, I find the ability to automatically mount host folders to the guest virtual machine on boot very useful.

    Parallels Tools needs to be installed on the guest machine. There are however some packages that needs to be installed first. The following are Parallels Tools pre-requisites (Parallels KB for this topic):

    • gcc
    • kernel headers
    • checkpolicy
    • selinux-policy-devel
    • dkms

    Enable Extras and Optional repository

    The pre-requisites require that additional repositories need to be enabled, namely: rehl-7-server-extras-rpms and rhel-7-server-optional-rpms. These repositories can be enabled using the subscription-manager.

    enable-extras-optional

    Development Tools

    Make sure to have the Development Tools group in your repository (yum groupinstall 'Development Tools') marked as enabled. Then update the packages (yum update).

    Install dkms

    From the pre-requisites enumerated above, only the dkms package is not found in any existing RHEL maintained repository. Instead, it is found in a community maintained repository called the EPEL Repository. For more information about the EPEL Repository, read this.

    Fortunately, it is possible to add third-party Repositories in RHEL. In the case of EPEL, we need to download the EPEL repository package available for download in their website. Then, install the package manually.

    See series of commands on the screenshot below:

    install-wget download-epel install-epel

    Once the EPEL repository is in place, simply do an update and install the dkms package using yum like so: yum update && yum install dkms

    Note: During installation of the dkms package, you will be asked to accept a new GPG key.

    Parallels Tools installer

    On the Parallels menu, click on "Install Parallels Tools". This will put the Parallels Tools installer on the cdrom device (this will prompt a warning, just click Continue). The next thing to do will be to mount the said device mount -o exec /dev/sr0 /media
    parallels-tools-info mount-parallels-tools-cdrom

    cd to the /media directory and run the install script. Then, follow the instructions on the screen and wait for the installation to finish.

    install-screen-1 install-screen2 install-susccessful

    After installation, reboot the virtual machine for changes to take effect. After reboot, you should see local drives being mounted on your virtual machine under /media/psf.

    parallels-tools-shared-drives

    Well, that's about it... a local, ready-to-use RHEL box that I can use to try stuff out.

     

    Last updated: October 29, 2024

    Recent Posts

    • More Essential AI tutorials for Node.js Developers

    • How to run a fraud detection AI model on RHEL CVMs

    • How we use software provenance at Red Hat

    • Alternatives to creating bootc images from scratch

    • How to update OpenStack Services on OpenShift

    Red Hat Developers logo LinkedIn YouTube Twitter Facebook

    Products

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
    • Red Hat OpenShift
    • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

    Build

    • Developer Sandbox
    • Developer Tools
    • Interactive Tutorials
    • API Catalog

    Quicklinks

    • Learning Resources
    • E-books
    • Cheat Sheets
    • Blog
    • Events
    • Newsletter

    Communicate

    • About us
    • Contact sales
    • Find a partner
    • Report a website issue
    • Site Status Dashboard
    • Report a security problem

    RED HAT DEVELOPER

    Build here. Go anywhere.

    We serve the builders. The problem solvers who create careers with code.

    Join us if you’re a developer, software engineer, web designer, front-end designer, UX designer, computer scientist, architect, tester, product manager, project manager or team lead.

    Sign me up

    Red Hat legal and privacy links

    • About Red Hat
    • Jobs
    • Events
    • Locations
    • Contact Red Hat
    • Red Hat Blog
    • Inclusion at Red Hat
    • Cool Stuff Store
    • Red Hat Summit

    Red Hat legal and privacy links

    • Privacy statement
    • Terms of use
    • All policies and guidelines
    • Digital accessibility

    Report a website issue