On Tuesday 03 December 2002 10:20 am, Henrik Schultz wrote:

Hello fellow Linux users!

A quick hint or advice is kindly requested ...

I have run Suse 6.4 for quite a while now, and has been very pleased with that. Now, I need to upgrade my Oracle 8i installation to 9i, and this requires glibc 2.2.

As with all upgrades, this often results in other upgrades being necessary (like I would think the kernel would have to be upgraded too, no?) So my basic question becomes:

A) Should I simply get the newest 8.1 distribution on CD, and trust that installing this will safely upgrade my Linux base?

- or -

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?

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.

If you have any information in this regard I'd be please to hear from you!

Thanks -

Henrik Schultz Senior Systems Architect Consultant to Maersk Data AS Tel.: +45 39 10 21 13 Mobile: +45 22 12 24 29 E-mail: hsz@maerskdata.dk

Just my opinion but my thoughts are: 1) Don't attempt to do a YAST upgrade from 6.4 to 8.1. Too many things have changed both in the way the distro is done and in the packages themselves. I really can't believe that YAST would attempt such an upgrade anyway but I might be wrong. The other reason for not attempting the above is: what if your not happy with the result or it is seriously broken? Can you retreat to what you have now? I made the first upgrade attempt I've ever done from 8.0 to 8.1 and I was not happy with the result. Ended up re-installing 8.0 from scratch. I will never attempt *any* upgrades again. I am fortunate to have enough disk space (it's really pretty cheap these days) to be able to do a fresh install of a distro and still leave the current install in place. That will be my plan for future installs. 2) I also wouldn't attempt upgrading in pieces. You might get away with it but my experience is that you always end up in 'dependency hell' where trying to upgrade one package involves upgrading 2 or 3 others and then those packages might also need something upgraded and it just goes on forever. My opinion: a fresh install of 8.1 while retaining your current 6.4. Either back it up carefully or install into fresh partitions. -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Bruce S. Marshall bmarsh@bmarsh.com Bellaire, MI 12/03/02 10:28 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ "Twinkies: They're not just for breakfast anymore.."

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