Last quarter, on November 19, 2024, the Rocky Linux distribution was released with version 9.5, which was a new counterpart to CentOS. It was developed in the wake of Red Hat's premature withdrawal of support for its distribution.
At the moment, the distribution can be installed and used using external media, disk images on virtual machines, containers, as well as cloud solutions from Serverspace!
Deploying a Rocky Linux 9.5 image
The easiest way to deploy is to use VPS servers in the Serverspace cloud platform. To do this, select the platform itself in the panel, go to the servers tab, where various distributions will be presented, including Rocky Linux 9.5.
After that, deploying the server will take no more than a minute and you will be able to connect via SSH or Cockpit interface.
Deploying via Docker image
Rocky Linux in Docker Hub has an official repository that contains both full and minimal images. At the moment, the latest release available is Rocky Linux 9, which can be downloaded with the command:
To run a container with a minimal image, you can use the docker run command:
Options, when starting the container allows you to forward ports from the host OS to the container, as well as create a virtual disk gg, relative to which will be stored data /etc. Other directories are mounted in a temporary file system and will be cleaned up after restarting the container.
Deploying via Linux
To install the Rocky Linux image via an external drive, you need to prepare the image and then partition it on the media. To do this, choose an image suitable for the architecture of our processor on the official website:
Let's find the name of the connected external drive via the command:
There is no need to split or mount it, as we will interact with it at the driver level, copying data bit by bit. Let's enter the command:
After that you can start from this device via BIOS and perform OS customization.
Important changes to Rocky Linux 9.5 GA include:
- improved hardware and driver support, such as for NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD graphics cards, as well as network adapters and sound cards;
- updated tools and libraries such as GCC, Python, OpenSSL, and others used in software development;
- enhanced security through kernel and security package updates, including vulnerability patches and improved protection against viruses and hacker attacks;
- improved system stability, which ensures reliable operation of the operating system and applications, reducing the likelihood of crashes and errors;
- support for new software versions, such as LibreOffice 7.3, GIMP 2.10.28, VLC 3.0.10 and other popular programs;
- improved support for virtual machines and containers, making it easier to manage and deploy virtual environments such as VirtualBox, VMware, and Docker;
- updated versions of applications and packages that give users access to the latest versions of popular programs and utilities such as Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, and GIMP;
- improved support for network connectivity and network services that provide stable and secure Internet and LAN connections, including IPv6 support and improved data encryption.