How To Switch From CentOS 8 to CentOS Stream

There were recent news that Red Hat will deprecate CentOS 8 Linux in favor of CentOS Stream Edition. Originally CentOS Linux was build to be a downstream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). This allowed the Community users to get a taste of what RHEL offered in its stable, enterprise operating system packaging.

With the Stream rolling release direction it means all software packages in the OS are frequently updated. Instead of the usual regularly or yearly major and minor iterations, a rolling release keeps everything updated at all times. Rolling release might be fit for Desktop use but not server running critical applications where unstable updates could result in breaking of application.

The original creator of CentOS Linux (Gregory M. Kurtzer) announced Rocky Linux, which is to be a “community enterprise Operating System designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Enterprise Linux, now that CentOS has shifted direction”. The team behind CloudLinux OS also announced plans to create fork of CentOS 8 Linux. CentOS Linux 8 EOL is December 31, 2021.

Convert CentOS 8 to CentOS Stream Linux

You might then be wondering how you can switch from CentOS 8 to CentOS Stream edition as you wait to see how Rocky Linux development project will come along.

Converting your CentOS 8 to CentOS Stream edition is a quick process. Start by initiating an ssh access request to the server.

$ ssh root@157.230.228.163

Warning: Permanently added '157.230.228.163' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.

Activate the web console with: systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket



Last login: Mon Dec 14 17:41:34 2020 from 41.80.98.251

Confirm current server edition.

$ cat /etc/os-release

NAME="CentOS Linux"

VERSION="8"

ID="centos"

ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"

VERSION_ID="8"

PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"

PRETTY_NAME="CentOS Linux 8"

ANSI_COLOR="0;31"

CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:centos:centos:8"

HOME_URL="https://centos.org/"

BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.centos.org/"

CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT="CentOS-8"

CENTOS_MANTISBT_PROJECT_VERSION="8"

Confirm this is CentOS Linux 8 operating system then install stream repository package.

sudo dnf -y install centos-release-stream

Then make the stream repositories default for all package management operations.

sudo dnf swap centos-linux,stream-repos

Hit the y key to accept when prompted.

....

Dependencies resolved.

==================================================================================================================================================================

 Package                                        Architecture                    Version                              Repository                              Size

==================================================================================================================================================================

Installing:

 centos-stream-release                          noarch                          8.4-1.el8                            Stream-BaseOS                           21 k

     replacing  centos-linux-release.noarch 8.3-1.2011.el8

     replacing  centos-release-stream.x86_64 8.1-1.1911.0.7.el8

 centos-stream-repos                            noarch                          8-2.el8                              Stream-BaseOS                           19 k

Removing:

 centos-linux-repos                             noarch                          8-2.el8                              @anaconda                               26 k



Transaction Summary

==================================================================================================================================================================

Install  2 Packages

Remove   1 Package



Total download size: 40 k

Is this ok [y/N]: y

Finally update all the packages with the stream available versions.

sudo dnf distro-sync

Agree to start package upgrade process.

....

Transaction Summary

==================================================================================================================================================================

Install     14 Packages

Upgrade    111 Packages

Downgrade   13 Packages



Total download size: 298 M

Is this ok [y/N]: y

Wait for the upgrade to complete then boot to CentOS Stream OS environment.

sudo reboot

Check os release details to validate the switch.

$ cat /etc/os-release

NAME="CentOS Stream"

VERSION="8"

ID="centos"

ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"

VERSION_ID="8"

PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"

PRETTY_NAME="CentOS Stream 8"

ANSI_COLOR="0;31"

CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:centos:centos:8"

HOME_URL="https://centos.org/"

BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"

REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8"

REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="CentOS Stream"

You’re now running on CentOS Stream edition. Stay connected for more fresh content.

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