Raspberry Pi] 3. Installing CentOS 7.6 on Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

Hello, guys. I will let you know how to install CentOS 7.6 in this post. Unlike Raspbian, if you install CentOS 7.6 on Raspberry Pi, the root filesystem is not automatically resized on boot. So you have to set it manually. Other than that, there is no big trouble to install. Let's see how to install it.

First please, download the CentOS 7.6 image file from the website below.

http://isoredirect.centos.org/altarch/7/isos/armhfp

In my case, I downloaded the 'CentOS-Userland-7-armv7hl-RaspberryPI-Minimal-1810-sda.raw.xz' file. Because GUI Environment consumes too much memory.

If you download complete, please prepare the micro SD and SD reader. Then combine them and connect them to your computer.

Unfortunately, the .raw extension file is not available in the Rufus program. So I used CentOS 7 virtual machine with a USB controller in VMware Workstation Pro.

After virtual machine booting, please run the following commands for installation.

[root@centos76 ~]# lsblk /dev/sdb NAME MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb    8:16   1 29.8G  0 disk [root@centos76 ~]# cd /mnt/hgfs/CentOS\ 7.6/ [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# ls CentOS-Userland-7-armv7hl-RaspberryPI-Minimal-1810-sda.raw.xz [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# xz -d CentOS-Userland-7-armv7hl-RaspberryPI-Minimal-1810-sda.raw.xz [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# dd if=CentOS-Userland-7-armv7hl-RaspberryPI-Minimal-1810-sda.raw of=/dev/sdb bs=1M 2712+0 records in 2712+0 records out 2843738112 bytes (2.8 GB) copied, 427.279 s, 6.7 MB/s

When the installation is complete, run the following commands to resize the partition of the root filesystem.

[root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# parted /dev/sdb unit mb print free Model: Mass Storage Device (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 32011MB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Disk Flags:  Number  Start   End      Size     Type     File system     Flags         0.03MB  1.05MB   1.02MB            Free Space  1      1.05MB  701MB    700MB    primary  fat32           boot, lba  2      701MB   1213MB   512MB    primary  linux-swap(v1)  3      1213MB  2713MB   1499MB   primary  ext4         2713MB  32011MB  29298MB           Free Space [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# parted /dev/sdb rm 3 Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab. [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# parted /dev/sdb unit mb mkpart primary ext4 1213 32011 Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab. [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# parted /dev/sdb print Model: Mass Storage Device (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 32.0GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Disk Flags:  Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system     Flags  1      1049kB  701MB   700MB   primary  fat32           boot, lba  2      701MB   1213MB  512MB   primary  linux-swap(v1)  3      1213MB  32.0GB  30.8GB  primary  ext4

After resizing the partition, run the following commands to expand the root filesystem.

[root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# e2fsck -f /dev/sdb3 e2fsck 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013) Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes Pass 2: Checking directory structure Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity Pass 4: Checking reference counts Pass 5: Checking group summary information _/: 24455/91584 files (0.6% non-contiguous), 243184/366080 blocks [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# resize2fs /dev/sdb3 resize2fs 1.42.9 (28-Dec-2013) Resizing the filesystem on /dev/sdb3 to 7518976 (4k) blocks. The filesystem on /dev/sdb3 is now 7518976 blocks long. [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# mkdir /rasp [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# mount /dev/sdb3 /rasp [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# df -Ph /rasp Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sdb3        29G  899M   28G   4% /rasp

Finally, create a swap file and set it.

[root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# mkdir /rasp/swapfile [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# dd if=/dev/zero of=/rasp/swapfile/swapfile1 bs=1M count=1024 1024+0 records in 1024+0 records out 1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 147.71 s, 7.3 MB/s [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# mkswap /swapfile/swapfile1 Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 1048572 KiB no label, UUID=15ddb497-31de-4a5a-9b28-b117c6286f25 [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# echo '/swapfile/swapfile1 swap swap defaults 0 0' >> /rasp/etc/fstab [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# umount /rasp [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# rmdir /rasp [root@centos76 CentOS 7.6]# eject /dev/sdb

Please, detach the SD reader from your computer and connect the micro SD to the raspberry pi.

Now connect the keyboard, mouse, and monitor to the Raspberry Pi and power on it. You will then be able to see the following screen.

The ID is root and the password is centos.

Congratulations. Now you can use CentOS 7.6 on Raspberry Pi. enjoy your Raspberry Pi. :D

See you next. Thank you.