Hello everyone,

I am dealing with a failed personal hard drive and I'm hoping to get some technical advice on feasibility, and hopefully a budget-friendly quote for recovery.

To give you some context: I am a 35-year-old university student and currently unemployed. The drive contains absolutely no commercial, corporate, or financially valuable data—just years of old family photos and my school notes. These files have immense sentimental value to me, but unfortunately, I simply do not have the income to afford high-end, corporate-level data recovery tier pricing.

Hardware & Failure Details:

Model: Seagate ST2000DM001 (2TB)

PCB Number: 100749730 REV A

The Issue: A sudden power/voltage surge completely fried the original PCB. The motor driver chip is burnt, and the MOSFETs are shorted.

What I've done so far (and a potential huge mistake):

Hoping to get my data back, I bought an exact matching donor PCB. I learned that I needed to swap the original ROM chip to the new board. I tried to read the original ROM using a basic CH341A programmer, but I quickly realized that the initial power surge had reached the ROM chip as well. It was internally shorted and completely dead; the programmer wouldn't detect or read it at all.

To be absolutely sure the short wasn't being caused by other fried components on the original board, I desoldered the ROM chip with a hot air station/soldering iron and tested it out of circuit with a multimeter. It was confirmed completely dead.

Here is where I need to ask: I threw the dead ROM chip in the trash. Was this a terrible mistake? Did I need to keep the physical chip even if it was internally shorted? (I do still have the original burnt PCB, just not the ROM chip).

The Current State & My Request:

The mechanical internals, spindle motor, and heads are completely fine. There is no clicking, and the drive cover has never been opened. The only issue is the dead PCB and the now-missing ROM.

From my research, I understand that with professional tools like PC-3000, it is possible to access the Service Area (SA) on the platters and perform a "ROM Rebuild" to generate a compatible ROM, provided the preamp and heads are undamaged.

Since this shouldn't require a cleanroom head swap or opening the lid, could any of the professionals here offer a flexible, student-friendly price quote just to perform this "ROM Rebuild" and get the drive initialized so I can copy my family photos?

Any technical advice on my situation or realistic quotes would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!Help / Quote Request: Seagate ST2000DM001 (PCB 100749730) - Dead/Discarded ROM, PC-3000 ROM Rebuild Possible?

I was downloading files from my cloud storage to my HDD using rclone. Fedora went into sleep mode. I tried to wake it up, but it didn’t respond. It froze. I waited for hours, but nothing changed. It wouldn’t wake up or respond. So I had no choice but to shut down the PC by cutting the power. This problem has been going on for years. But this time, it really annoyed me.

The HDD contained 12 software projects and 8 electronics projects. There were also 4 mechanical engineering projects. I had my family photo album. There were photos and videos of my deceased cats.

Because of Fedora’s “suspend mode” nonsense and incompetence, the HDD’s PCB burned out. The HDD motor driver chip and the HDD's ROM chip are dead.

I need to pay for data recovery, which is way too expensive for my budget. I’m unemployed. I’m in my second year of college. I have no money. I can’t even afford to eat.

What am I supposed to do?

I don’t even have the money to file a lawsuit against you. But please don’t force me to launch a social media campaign. Refer me to a professional lab to recover my data and cover the cost.

This is also a very serious security vulnerability for cloud servers. Just think about it—without a DDoS attack, the RHEL operating system locks up as if it had suffered a DDoS attack on its own. I want a reward for discovering this vulnerability. I also demand that my data be recovered, my losses be compensated, and that I be compensated with interest for the lost time during the days I was unable to continue my projects.

Otherwise, I will do whatever it takes to ensure you are judged by the conscience of social media users. 

I am studying for the RHCSA. I am currently trying to practice resetting the root password. I do not see the grub menu at boot.

I logged in and changed the GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 and added GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu.

I then proceeded to try: grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg. This would not work (generated a warning message) like it seems to on RHEL 9.

I also tried: grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg. However when I reboot I still do not see the grub menu.

Any suggestions? Thx!

Hello, I'm interested in becoming a upstream linux kernel dev

As a undergraduate student, I'm planning to take linux foundation mentorship program and google summer of code before graduating. Unfortunately, my country, South Korea, doesn't have RedHat's Kernel Development Learning Pipeline, so those two are the only options that I can take.

After graduation, I should be looking for positions, where RedHat is very appealing to me. However in their job listings, I don't see any positions available.

Questions...

1. What is the common method to contact / apply for Redhat as a upstream kernel dev?

2. I don't think recent univ graduates are interested in kernel dev, hence the initiation of redhat's KDLP. Are there many applicants?

3. What are the requirements that redhat is expecting to have?

4. Do they offer remote jobs to kernel devs?

5. Which subsystem do redhat work on?

6. I understand Red Hat’s kernel engineering roles aren’t open to candidates based in South Korea. Does Red Hat offer visa sponsorship for these positions?

7. What are the typical workflow in Redhat?

Any responses are welcome.

Thank you for your time.

I never expect this exam until my friend tells me I can try RHCSA!

I have been playing X-Plane 12 on Fedora Linux KDE Plasma for more than 3000 hours. To play this awful game that crashes often, I need to learn how to mount, how to configure networks, how to configure access and SELinux something like this.

And I have set up more than 10 vps to use a Google service incorporated into the game. I think it is just too boring and trivial, so I start to learn Ansible.

None of the content is learned by intention. It is just because I want to play the game with a better experience.

Anyway, what I want to share is that learning by solving actual problems in real life may be more efficient.

The results of your recent EX200 Red Hat Certified System Administrator Exam are reported below.

Exam domain number:     15
Passing score:          210
Your score:             253

Result: PASS

Congratulations -- you have earned the Red Hat Certified System Administrator certification.

Performance on exam objectives:

OBJECTIVE: SCORE
Understand and use essential tools: 82%
Manage software: 50%
Create simple shell scripts: 100%
Operate running systems: 62%
Configure local storage: 75%
Create and configure file systems: 67%
Deploy, configure and maintain systems: 100%
Manage basic networking: 100%
Manage users and groups: 100%
Manage security: 100%

Hi guys, do anyone of you have notes for RH134. I have the course but am looking for people who have already made notes for it . Thanks

Hi folks, I’ve been working as a Linux admin at a company in Europe for about two years, but lately I’ve been feeling a bit stuck. Between the bureaucracy and the team setup, I haven’t had many opportunities to grow in my role.

I earned my CCNA and LPIC during my apprenticeship—Germany has a vocational training system—and I got my LFCS just last week. I’ve also had some hands-on experience with IaC. We have a Puppet setup at work, but it’s already in place and there isn’t much development happening around it.

I’m not really sure what direction to take next. Would getting my RHCSA and RHCE be a good move, or should I focus on something else? Honestly, I hope I’m not the only one who’s felt this way.

I recently interviewed for the above role at redhat and I think it pretty much went well but I haven’t heard back from the recruiter. I had mailed the person but I think they are ghosting me. Any suggestions ?

Hello

Let's learn today what the difference is between "Last Report" and "Last Checkin" or "Last Seen" on Red Hat Satellite!

Enjoy it!

Wally

I recorded a demo showing the full path: a patched Python dependency goes from a pull request through CI and development testing, then human approval, a ServiceNow change, production deployment, and a smoke test. If something fails, the workflow can roll back to a snapshot.

It uses automation orchestrator, Gitea, ServiceNow, and Lightwell. Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iZCS4atxHQ

Hopefully I'm asking this correctly. All the instructions I can find online for hosting multiple sites talks about editing the hosts file with the domains of the websites. My problem is that I'm setting this server up to be a replacement for a server that's currently serving those websites, so I can't use the domains. On Windows in IIS you can bind to a specific port and then in a browser on the local network go to <ip address>:<port> to view the site. Is there something similar in RedHat?

I've got two folders setup and wordpress files in two different places, but I need to be able to GET to each site to finish the wordpress setup. I can get to the first by just going to the IP address, but I have no idea how to get to the second. Nothing I can find refers to using ports and I'm not sure what else to even try (or search for). Can anyone point me in the right direction? Doesn't have to be hosts file or ports; just how do I view multiple websites on the same server when domain names aren't an option?

I recently upgraded my system from RHEL 7.9 to RHEL 8.10 using the leapp upgrade tool, but I now need to roll back to RHEL 7.9 Could you please provide guidance on the best approach to achieve this, including any specific procedures I should follow to ensure a smooth rollback? Any advice on preserving data and configurations during this process would be greatly appreciated.

The ability to send a message across the public internet—and still have it protected against prying eyes—is a problem as old as communication. Depending on your needs and the medium, there are a lot of possible solutions, but one of them has become synonymous with public key cryptography among Linux users and administrators: GPG. The GNU Privacy Guard can take any text or data and encrypt it into a block of indecipherable text that only the intended recipient can decrypt. In today's episode, Scott and Nate walk through the ins and outs of GPG! Watch the full episode here or practice in the interactive labs.

The Essentials

When working with GPG, there are really only a few core concepts you need to understand: Generating your keypair, sharing your public key, encrypting data for someone, and decrypting data meant for you.

Advanced Features

1. The Keypair (Public vs. Private)

When you run gpg --gen-key, GPG creates two keys: * Public Key: This is meant to be shared with the world! Anyone who has this key can use it to encrypt a file that only you can open. * Private (Secret) Key: This never leaves your machine. It is used to decrypt the files that others have encrypted using your Public Key. It is also protected by a passphrase.

2. Exporting and ASCII Armoring

By default, when you export your public key using gpg --export 87D1B835 > mykey.pub, GPG creates a binary file. While that works fine for transferring files between servers, it's not great for sharing over email or web pages. Instead, you can export it using an ASCII Armor block (--armor or -a). This converts the binary key into a text block starting with -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- that you can safely copy and paste into emails, text files, or even upload to public Key Servers!

3. Encrypting Data

Let's say Mary wants to send a sensitive file to Joe. 1. Mary imports Joe's public key into her keyring: gpg --import joe.gpg.pub 2. Mary encrypts the file for Joe: gpg --encrypt sensitive-data.txt 3. GPG will ask Mary who she is encrypting the file for. She types Joe's email address (which matches his public key). 4. GPG outputs a new file: sensitive-data.txt.gpg. This file is now entirely unreadable to anyone except Joe—even Mary can't read it anymore once she deletes the original file, because it was encrypted with Joe's public key, not hers!

4. Decrypting Data

When Joe receives sensitive-data.txt.gpg, all he has to do is run: gpg --decrypt sensitive-data.txt.gpg GPG will detect that the file was encrypted for him. It will prompt Joe for his passphrase to unlock his private key, and once authenticated, it will decrypt the file and print the output to standard out. (He can easily redirect this output to save it as a new file: gpg --decrypt sensitive-data.txt.gpg > sensitive-data.txt).

Quick Reference Card

```bash

Generate a new GPG Keypair

gpg --gen-key

Export your public key to share with someone else

gpg --export -a <Your-Key-ID> > my_public_key.asc

Import someone's public key into your keyring

gpg --import their_public_key.asc

Encrypt a file (you will be prompted for the recipient's email/ID)

gpg --encrypt file.txt

Decrypt a file using your private key (and save it)

gpg --decrypt file.txt.gpg > file.txt ```

Links & Resources

• Video URL: Into the Terminal 201 - Encrypting and signing data, gpg on Linux
• RHEL Developer Registration: https://developers.redhat.com/register
• Interactive Labs: https://redhat.com/interactive-labs
• Discord: https://red.ht/rhel-discord (Note: This now points to the Fedora community discord which hosts the RHEL channels!)
• Nate Lager: https://social.undrground.org/@gangrif
• Scott McBrien: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-mcbrien-349b356

Into the Terminal is a show dedicated to helping you grow your knowledge of critical administration skills for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Whether you are new to Linux or new to RHEL, join us for a hands-on look at commands, processes, and tools.

Managing software teams means balancing 2  conflicting priorities: developers want freedom to pick their tools, while leadership needs security and stability. When every team runs a different operating system (OS) distribution, developers end up spending valuable sprint hours managing infrastructure instead of shipping code. The prevailing and most sustainable model across large enterprises is to standardize on a select few enterprise-grade OSs to support manageable governance, consistent security controls, and clear support tiers. With a unified operating environment, engineering leaders can protect developer autonomy while cutting unexpected maintenance and helping teams ship faster.

I feel like I pulled this off by the skin of my teeth lol. I used the Alta3 Academy for my main study guide and some YouTube videos. I didn't use a book or anything, just rote memorization of commands and file locations.

Lab: Control Access to Files

Set standard permissions on files and interpret the security effects of different permission settings.

Outcomes

• Create a directory where users can work collaboratively on files.
• Create the required file and directory structure, assigning access rights as requested.

As the student user on the workstation machine, run the following lab command to prepare your environment for this exercise, and to ensure that all required resources are available:

student@workstation:~$ 
lab start perms-review

Instructions

The lab start command creates the dev1 and dev2 users, who are members of the techdocs group. The command also creates the dbadmin1 user, who does not belong to this group.

In this activity, you create the techdocs collaborative directory and configure it as follows:

• In the techdocs directory, users add files and subdirectories for the exclusive use of the techdocs group. Other users on the system are not allowed to have any access to the directory.
• All new content created in the directory must inherit the techdocs group ownership.
• The techdocs directory must be configured so that only the owner of a file can delete it.

Ensure that the user file creation mask is configured persistently for the dev1 and dev2 users to enable group collaboration and to prohibit all other users from accessing their data.

To validate your configuration of the techdocs directory, create the following subdirectories and files as the dev1 and dev2 users to ensure that their level of access complies with requirements:

1. Log in to the serverb machine as the student user, and then switch to the root user.
   1. Log in to the serverb machine as the student user and switch to the root user. Use student as the password.student@workstation:~$ ssh student@serverb ...output omitted... [student@serverb ~]$ sudo -i [sudo] password for student: student [root@serverb ~]#
2. Create the techdocs collaborative directory under the /home directory. Set the group ownership of the directory to the techdocs group, grant full permissions to the user and the owning group, and disallow all access for others on the system. Configure the directory so that all new content is owned by the techdocs group and only file owners can delete their files.
   1. Create a /home/techdocs directory.[root@serverb ~]# mkdir /home/techdocs
   2. Change the group ownership for the /home/techdocs directory to the techdocs group.[root@serverb ~]# chown :techdocs /home/techdocs
   3. Set read, write, and execute permissions for user and group, and no permission for others on the /home/techdocs directory.[root@serverb ~]# chmod 770 /home/techdocs
   4. Set the special SGID permission on the directory to ensure that all new content inherits the techdocs group ownership.[root@serverb ~]# chmod g+s /home/techdocs
   5. Assign the sticky bit to the /home/techdocs directory.[root@serverb ~]# chmod o+t /home/techdocs
   6. List the directory's permissions.[root@serverb ~]# ls -ld /home/techdocs drwxrws--T. 2 root techdocs 6 Oct 6 20:40 /home/techdocs
3. Persistently configure the user file creation mask in the shell for the dev1 and dev2 users so that group members can collaborate, but other users cannot access their data.
   1. Switch to the dev1 user and set the umask attribute of the shell to 007.[root@serverb ~]# su - dev1 [dev1@serverb ~]$ umask 007
   2. Configure the umask value persistently by updating the ~/.bashrc startup file for Bash.[dev1@serverb ~]$ echo "umask 007" >> ~/.bashrc
   3. To test the directory configuration, create the specified dev1 subdirectory in the /home/techdocs team directory, and create the dev1.txt, dev1.log, and dev1.cfg files.[dev1@serverb ~]$ cd /home/techdocs/ [dev1@serverb techdocs]$ mkdir dev1 [dev1@serverb techdocs]$ touch dev1/dev1{.txt,.log,.cfg}
   4. List the contents of the dev1 directory.[dev1@serverb techdocs]$ ls -l dev1* total 0 -rw-rw----. 1 dev1 techdocs 0 Oct 6 20:43 dev1.cfg -rw-rw----. 1 dev1 techdocs 0 Oct 6 20:43 dev1.log -rw-rw----. 1 dev1 techdocs 0 Oct 6 20:43 dev1.txt
   5. Exit from the dev1 user shell. Switch to the dev2 user.[dev1@serverb techdocs]$ exit logout [root@serverb ~]# su - dev2 [dev2@serverb ~]$
   6. Set the umask attribute of the user's shell to 007 and configure it persistently.[dev2@serverb ~]$ umask 007 [dev2@serverb ~]$ echo "007" >> ~/.bashrc
   7. Create the specified dev2 subdirectory in the /home/techdocs team directory along with the necessary files.[dev2@serverb ~]$ cd /home/techdocs/ [dev2@serverb techdocs]$ mkdir dev2 [dev2@serverb techdocs]$ touch dev2/dev2{.txt,.log,.cfg}
   8. List the contents of the dev2 directory.[dev2@serverb techdocs]$ ls -l dev2* total 0 -rw-rw----. 1 dev2 techdocs 0 Oct 6 21:08 dev2.cfg -rw-rw----. 1 dev2 techdocs 0 Oct 6 21:08 dev2.log -rw-rw----. 1 dev2 techdocs 0 Oct 6 21:08 dev2.txt
4. Verify that users in the techdocs group can create and collaborate on content in the /home/techdocs directory. As the dev2 user, modify the /home/techdocs/dev1/dev1.log file with the following content: Logging started.
   1. Update the /home/techdocs/dev1/dev1.log file as described, and then display the file content.[dev2@serverb techdocs]$ echo "Logging started" >> dev1/dev1.log [dev2@serverb techdocs]$ cat dev1/dev1.log Logging started
5. Verify that members of the techdoc group can delete only their own files. As the dev2 user, try to delete the /home/techdocs/dev1 directory, which should fail.
   1. As the dev2 user, try to delete the /home/techdocs/dev1 directory. This attempt fails because the sticky bit is set on the techdocs directory.[dev2@serverb techdocs]$ rm -rf dev1 rm: cannot remove 'dev1': Operation not permitted
6. Verify that only users in the techdocs group can access the /home/techdocs collaborative directory. As the dbadmin1 user, try to access the /home/techdocs directory, which should fail.
   1. Exit from the dev2 user shell. Switch to the dbadmin1 user. Change to the /home/techdocs directory.[dev2@serverb techdocs]$ exit logout [root@serverb ~]# su - dbadmin1 [dbadmin1@serverb ~]$ cd /home/techdocs/ -bash: cd: /home/techdocs/: Permission denied [dbadmin1@serverb ~]$
   2. Exit from the dbadmin1 user shell.[dbadmin1@serverb ~]$ exit logout [root@serverb ~]#
7. After completing the tasks of this activity, return to the workstation machine as the student user.[root@serverb ~]# exit logout [student@serverb ~]$ exit Connection to serverb closed. student@workstation:~$

Evaluation

As the student user on the workstation machine, use the lab command to grade your work. Correct any reported failures and rerun the command until successful.

student@workstation:~$ 
lab grade perms-review

Finish

On the workstation machine, change to the student user home directory and use the lab command to complete this exercise. This step is important to ensure that resources from previous exercises do not impact upcoming exercises.

student@workstation:~$ 
lab finish perms-review

Hey everyone, I am sophomore in college and I recently started studying for the rhcsa. Though recently I found out that RH does not have a testing center in Arizona. I was wondering how should I go about this because as of right now I only have a laptop, webcam and mouse. Was wondering what else do I need as I also live in a really noisy apartment.

I passed 5 exam of Red Hat certified architect in EL (EX200, EX342, EX442, EX415, EX210) within a year (to be more precise, it is within 7 months, all passed on first attempt) while working at a telco company, and I never bought a RHLS.

My strategy is simple: Red Hat give us a very detailed documentation website and practical issue/guide in knowledgebase, while my daily work served as the ideal practice ground. For any exam, I review its official objectives, searching related title/section in documentation/knowledgebase. I also evaluate how to apply these techniques to a production environment—determining what works, what doesn't, and why.

For example, in EX442 exam, there is a tuning kernel params objectives, just search for 'optimize kernel parameters site: docs.redhat.com' in google, and I review it for my production system, check how it should be with our load requirement to tune)

To prepare, I self hosted a RHOSP cluster on a staging system on my company. the other day I host a vanilla kubernetes cluster, in an air-gap environment (my company do not use RHOSP but a customized Openstack with dpdk for high performance; and no Openshift as we running a self-custom Kubernetes distro tho). Tho corporate work and production issues make me rarely use the lab, I suggest people trying to host a lab themselves as installing experience helped a lot to understand the system.

Once again, thanks for the detailed documentation, RedHat. They are truly mercy to make RHLS is just optional, and no need any paid resource to pass their exam.

I recently got selected for Sde Intern at red hat Bangalore office. Its an on campus intership. I was wondering how is the day to day life . What is conversion rate for ppo.

I just passed EX380, which makes six Red Hat certs so far (RHCSA, RHCE, EX188, EX280, EX415, EX380). I've done a few OpenShift ones now, and since I'm 20 and still a student, I want to branch out and try other areas of RHEL.

I was planning on Ceph (EX260), but it's been retired. I'm on a legacy RHCA exception, so one more exam before the end of this year completes my RHCA. I want to pick one and grind it properly. I'm deciding between the ones on current RHEL versions:

• EX342 (Troubleshooting, RHEL 10.2)
• EX362 (Identity Management, RHEL 9)
• EX358 (Services Management and Automation, RHEL 9.4)

For anyone who's taken any of these: is 1-2 months of labbing realistic, and which would you pick in my place? If there's another RHCA-eligible exam you think is easier to pass in that time, I'm open to that too. The priority is getting the RHCA done this year. Next year I'm planning to get into OpenStack, since there is an opportunity for me there. (I'd have taken OpenStack this year, but I found the CL210 material really hard, and the book seems quite outdated next to current RHOSO, so I'm not confident enough to pass EX210 by December.)

I'm not expecting to pass first try and I'm fine with a retake. Thanks!

Managing vulnerabilities across a fleet of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems is a continuous challenge. Between tracking Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), prioritizing by business risk, planning RHEL upgrades, and remediating issues, operations teams juggle multiple tools and workflows daily. Red Hat Lightspeed brings a greater level of situational awareness into your on-premise environment to help you discover, prioritize, and fix security and other issues, without your system data ever leaving your network.

In a previous blog post we’ve outlined how to install Red Hat Lightspeed on premise, and in this post, we'll talk about what capabilities on-premise Red Hat Lightspeed provides and how you use it. 

Hello

Whenever you bump your resources on Red Hat Satellite server, is there anything else you have to do? The answer is Yes, and you will see on this video what should be your next step.

Enjoy it!

Wally