The 02.12.03 at 16:20, Henrik Schultz wrote:
A) Should I simply get the newest 8.1 distribution on CD, and trust that installing this will safely upgrade my Linux base?
Er... do it, but do not trust it.
B) Should I try patch up the current 6.4 system with individual RPM's (such as glibc, the kernel, etc.), or is this a no-no?
Tricky. That's what the upgrade should do for you :-)
My preference is A) really, as many other things have been updated too in the meantime. But I seem to be unable to find any information anywhere (FAQ's, mailing lists, support Web, etc.) that says anything about how Yast handles upgrades to a newer release.
I have usually done upgrades from one version to another, but never one so different like yours. And, the upgrade from 7.3 to 8.1 was the first one to destroy my installation - yast noticed the separate /home partition, but forgot the /opt one, running out of space and happily failing to warn me of that, producing an unbootable, unrecoverable system. I had to install a fresh system. So... first fully backup your system, so that you can recover it completely (I had a backup of all my files, but not a full backup including system). Then, go ahead with the update, very, very carefully (check the partitions it detect, for example). If, and I say if, it does work well, it should hopefully be able to upgrade most of your system, keeping/upgrading configurations, and advising of changes. If it doesn't, you lost some time, and have to do a clean install. And, if yours is a production machine, I would setup a new machine, having the old one running. Allow for some weeks till you have everything finished (depending on your dedication, experience and luck). An idea... you might try to upgrade first to 7.1 or 7.3, check everything, and then to 8.1, but that would be more work. -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson