[SOLVED] Figure out which package manager is installed

[Icovada]

I am the "IT manager" in my new work place (since I'm the only one who knows about computers).
With horror I discovered the machine used to keep the warehouse records and for sales is a 2002 Linux installation, running a 2.4 series kernel, running telnet for the dumb terminals in the front.

Did I mention it's connected to the internet?
Did I mention root has no password?

First thing I did was secure that, but now I want to update it. Problem is, nobody knows what distro it is, and the software company that set it up has gone bust.
All I know is that it's rpm-based.

Any ideas on how to find out which distro it is, how to update it without breaking anything? (you guessed it, no backups).

P.S. the main user, used for the everyday business autoruns the warehouse program at login (console-based), but I can't find any script in its home folder. Where else could it be?

[oz]

Hello and welcome aboard!

You won't be able to easily update/upgrade that system because so much has changed in the last 9 years. Your best route, in my opinion, is to backup all important data and do a fresh install using a recent version of the distribution of your choice, then restore your data.

[Icovada]

They'll never let me do that. Too much downtime, and if I can't update it straight away, I'm afrid some stuff might not work, after I work with it.

Even the actual IT assistance company that gave them a new computer 2 years ago when the old one caught fire just did a good old dd from the old drive to the new one (a 1,5TB one... for a 6GB install...). Apparently they didn't know better.

I've already put in a root password, secured the firewall and disabled unnecessary services (postfix, bind, dbus... seriously?) as for the rest, I don't care!

Too bad though.

[Irithori]

I am a sysadmin also.

In that situation (new guy, crappy system):
I would flat out refuse to take any responsibilty for that system.
State your reasons:
- not up to date
- open to attacks
- no documentation
- old hardware, aka: bound to break

Offer to build it from scratch with hardware under guarantee, up to date OS, documented install, backup, logging, etc.

If they dont accept that:
1) no support for the old
2) ressources (time/budget/people) for the new
--> get out.

Seriously, not worth dealing with that kind of "management" if there are better and greener fields eleswhere.

[Icovada]

No, luckily the system safety is not my responsibility, I'm just a clerk but when I noticed it was a Linux system I said it was a good choice and they told me I could look at it, maybe update something etc.

I've already told them I've put in a password and disabled the unsafe services, but that other than that I'm not taking any responsibility. Unfortunately they are in a situation where a new software isn't an option.
It's not working bad, it's just the system that is unsafe.

I think I'm making the previous "tech genie" angry, because I'm playing with his toy. How could I know he was the self-elected sysadmin, the guy who, at my "Oh, it's Linux" replied with a "It's not Leenucs, it's (warehouse software name)"

Oh well, I'll mess up with him (set up cron scripts to make it go mad, then pretend to fix it) and see what happens

[atreyu]

P.S. the main user, used for the everyday business autoruns the warehouse program at login (console-based), but I can't find any script in its home folder. Where else could it be?

Did you check the cron jobs? as root, you could look in /var/spool/cron/, at least i think that is where you might find cron jobs on your system. you could always just su to that user and run crontab -l, too.

Also look in the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local and all the scripts in /etc/rc.d/init.d/.

You could try to find out what distro it is, for your own satisfaction, by looking in the contents of any files turned up by

ls /etc/*-release

but like somebody said, i'd steer clear of updating anything on that system.

[Icovada]

Found it! Thank you so much! It's SuSE 8