Fedora Core 6

[Void Main]

You could always do a net upgrade with only one CD as far as I recall. You have the option of doing it via HTTP, FTP, or NFS. I know I have been doing network installs like that since at least Red Hat 4.0 and maybe before that. For example in Red Hat 8.0:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linu ... ethod.html
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linu ... -http.html

[moto526]

Test 3 is out now I hear... Any one try it out?

[Void Main]

I usually wait for the official public release. I usually have the voidmain web server updated to it 1 or 2 days after release. Yep, I like living on the edge. :)

[Calum]

i have fedora core 4 and am perfectly happy with it. is there any reason i should upgrade in the future? the most compelling reason i can think of is the apt repositories being updated less/not at all for future versions (which is a bit silly really, but there you go...)

i do find the thing of having a new version every few months to be a bit of an irritation in terms of reinstalling the system, especially when fedora hasn't really been an O/S that needs a lot of reinstalling in my experience. in fact, are there significant differences in fedora 5 and 6 that couldn't be applied by having up to date rpms in fedora 3 or 4 (or 1 or 2)?

[Ice9]

Calum wrote:

I do find the thing of having a new version every few months to be a bit of an irritation in terms of reinstalling the system, especially when fedora hasn't really been an O/S that needs a lot of reinstalling in my experience.

You could always just update your sources.list to point to the new repositories and dist-upgrade your whole system, kind of what debian users do ...
This way you would always stay up-to-date with your system and you wouldn't have to go through the hassle of re-installing the whole thing or even do the upgrade with cd's.

What's your opinion on this Void Main?

[worker201]

As a long time Fedora user, I have to wonder exactly what the irritation is? You download the cd/dvd, burn it, and then run it. It takes a long time, but the whole process from start to finish shouldn't last you more than a work day. Nothing important gets changed - programs installed by hand still work, your home folder remains intact, all system settings stay set. The only hassle, in my experience, is the time. (granted, some people just don't have time, and I'm sorry for that)

[Void Main]

Yeah, what worker said. If you are happy with FC4 then stick with it but I have not found it any trouble at all to burn the CDs (or DVD) and just do an upgrade install. I find that on most of my systems not much if anything at all has to be done/configured after an upgrade and I'm presented with pretty much what I had before the upgrade, just newer versions of each package and any added features. Now, if you have a lot of 3rd party kernel modules and the like you might not want to upgrade. Also, regarding Ice9's suggestion of the debian way I would not recommend it. I used to do this for RH8->RH9, RH9->FC1, FC1->FC2 but somewhere in that area things started getting to be a giant hassle and the CD "Upgrade Install" has always been near flawless for me. I do have an automated script that does a dist-upgrade every night but that will only update anything for the current release, not upgrade to the next release:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/files/scr ... st-upgrade

[Basher52]

If i want to do an upgrade, the most "secure" way to do that would be by DVD's, right? because if I do upgrade through FTP and the net goes down that would screw things up enough to not be able to restart the system... or?

[Copperhead]

If i want to do an upgrade, the most "secure" way to do that would be by DVD's, right? because if I do upgrade through FTP and the net goes down that would screw things up enough to not be able to restart the system... or?

Hi guys...been away for a bit with medical problems with the old bum back. Back surgery is not fun. Just say no.

If you are worried about an internet connection through FTP, either on your end, or worried about a server end, then you should go with the DVD. At least with the DVD you can do an md5checksum to make sure every bit of data is ironed out, and nice and smooth. With FTP, you have an increased "risk factor." There are a lot of things that can go wrong over a TCP/IP connection that you will have no control over.

What you could always do, if you are in the mood to experiment with the different methods that a Linux distro has to offer, is always back up. If you have a spare drive or partition laying around somewhere, just use dd to dump it to an open partition or a free disk. Use dd again to back up your boot loader, and then go from there. With a boot floppy you can always edit the disk with your working version of Linux, and switch the options whnenver. Linux gives you that flexibility.

Explore the possibilities. If you are unsure about upgrading using apt, then give it a whirl. Just make sure you back up your existing installation in case you botch something. Try it by adding a downloaded DVD to your sources.list file and do a routine apt-get dist-upgrade. If it fails, retrace. You can always reformat the drive and dd your back up (and bootloader) to its original location. If you just want to check certain changes to the OS versions, mount the cd and use the diff | sort commands (with whatever options you need...use the man page) to check the differences. You could also use apt-cache policy to check these as well. Remember, the command line is just that in Linux: COMMAND, and you are the commander. I went from FC4 to FC5 using a variation of this model, and executed it perfectly and learned a lot by watching the process, and by reading error codes.

I never wrote a script for this, but since I am able to actually sit in a chair and type now, I will be more than happy to try to write some stuff for you. If you know how to use fdisk (linux..not that P.O.S. that is laughingly called FDISK in windows) and a few basic commands, and know how to direct input and output using BSH or BASH, and you know how to read a man page, and think, you should be fine.

Just back up everything, and use your boot disk. Try out differnt methods, until you find something that you are comfortable with. This is Linux. Nothing is etched in stone, and there is no "wrong" way to accomplish your goals.



[/quote]

[JoeDude]

You've obviously neve seen the unwitting damage I can do to an O/S without even trying...experimentation is my downfall...

However, I did learn what not to do

[Basher52]

nice info
but... Ive been using Linux for... hmm... about 3 years now, but im not type that you all are, that sits down and try anything eventhough you aint gonna use it. ive installed what i need, and after that leave it alone and just use (as you think sux bigtime) yum for the updates.

back in FC2(i think) and older, i used apt, but now, for me anyways, yum works perfectly, i get what i need so why change it.
and you talked about updating with apt, and by that i figure thats the only way(?)
when using DVD, is there an upgrade option to use? because i cant remember ever seeing that.

we'll see what happens when the time comes and i just HAVE to upgrade when FC4 is "no more"

[Void Main]

when using DVD, is there an upgrade option to use? because i cant remember ever seeing that.

Yes, and that's the method I use and the method I suggest for the type of user you say you are. This option has been in every release of Fedora/Red Hat for as long as I can remember. At least back to Red Hat 4 and probably from the beginning (my memory gets foggy any farther back). See it in the installation instructions:

http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/fedora-in ... ystem.html

[Basher52]

ok, so I gotta have missed that
I also forgot to ask... can I do an upgrade in two step at once? from FC4 -> FC6 or do I have to go "through" FC5 first?

[Void Main]

ok, so I gotta have missed that :P
I also forgot to ask... can I do an upgrade in two step at once? from FC4 -> FC6 or do I have to go "through" FC5 first?

That is a good question and one that I don't have experience with, at least recently, but I believe that you *should* be able to go from FC4->FC6 without too many problems. I usually upgrade everything I have when a new release comes out so I don't even run into that. I could install FC4 on VMware and upgrade it to FC6 if you like so I can answer more accurately. That's still not a great test though as a stock FC4 to FC6 upgrade might go great and a heavily customized FC4 to FC6 upgrade might not. But, I believe you shouldn't have much trouble upgrading from FC4 to FC6 using the CD upgrade. You might ask on some of the other Fedora lists if anyone has already done it and what issues they might have had.

[Calum]

in that case the only thing i can think of that should be available is some sort of one command upgrade. You should just be able to stick your DVD in the drive and type one line and then go out to work. ideally the one line command would upgrade the whole system from FC4 to FC5 (or whatever) and then shut the PC down. Do they have this option? i am liking the idea of this "long time" that it takes to install less and less every time it is mentioned.

I think I will stick with FC4. i'll wait till it becomes "obsolete" itself and then just backup my data and do a clean install of FC13 or whatever is the most current release at that time.