[lug] KRUD 8.0 (12/1/02) Install Issues

Ed Hill ed at eh3.com
Mon Jan 13 22:17:50 MST 2003


On Mon, 2003-01-13 at 16:14, Michael Deck wrote:
> I'm having a couple of problems upgrading to KRUD 8.0. The original installation was 7.2. 
> 
> I'd been having CD-ROM problems so I copied the contents of the 3 disks onto a local server from which I could do an HTTP install, created a boot floppy, and started. Selected "upgrade" and everything seemed to go fine. 
> 
> When I started a KDE session, though, all the taskbar icons except the red hat were little gears with nothing behind them. 
> 
> I tried erasing my home/.kde and that didn't fix the problem. That trick had fixed the problem on another machine. 
> 
> Then I did a bad thing and erased /etc/kde. Whoosh. Next restart, the only thing that comes up is a terminal window (not a console). Ick. 
> 
> So I thought I would smbmount the drive containing the KRUD copy and rpm -F kde*. After an hour of no apparent progress (but rpm and similar tasks in top), I killed it. 
> 
> Now I've fixed my CD-ROM problems so I figure I'll boot the 1st KRUD disc and upgrade. After selecting "Update boot loader configuration" it says "Finding packages to upgrade" and hangs here for 20+ minutes with no apparent progress. 
> 
> What to do? On this machine I'm cool with re-installing everything. This is my laptop and is pretty much a shadow system for traveling. 
> 
> The thing that worries me is, this upgrade was a test to see if there would be problems before I upgrade my main server. Experience says that upgrading the server can result in days of intermittent performance as I figure out what went wrong. So I'm really trying to understand what's up here so I can figure out what to plan for my "real" upgrade. 
> 
> Any thoughts? 


Hi Mike,

Theres at *least* two sides to the "update the packages" vs. "re-install
the OS from scratch" debate.

I happen to be a fan of the latter.  On both my laptop and the dozen
desktops that I administer, I keep a separate /home partition.  The idea
is that I can:

  1) copy the /etc directory contents to /home or a CDR
  2) wipe all the non-\home partitions and re-install the OS 
       from scratch
  3) use the config info from the old copy of /etc to re-build 
       the necessary parts

Please note that I'm not trying to "sell" or otherwise proselytize this
approach as it does have its down-sides:

  - time consuming
  - easy to make mistakes -- esp. for the inexperienced
  - easy to forget both the necessary config changes or how to 
      make them

but on the other hand it does come with the following benefits:

  - cruft removal (!)
  - imposition of a certain discipline -- it effectively forces me 
      to keep some notes for the re-installs so I tend to make
      fewer mistakes
  - satisfies by inner clean-/control-freak tendencies
  - avoids some of the problems that used to be more common with 
      Linux distro upgrades

Good luck with your current upgrade!

Ed


-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD 
Post-Doctoral Researcher   |  Email:  ed at eh3.com,  ehill at mines.edu
Division of ESE            |  URLs:   http://www.eh3.com
Colorado School of Mines   |    http://cesep.mines.edu/people/hill.htm
Golden, CO  80401          |  Phones:  303-384-2094, 303-273-3483
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/pipermail/lug/attachments/20030113/20261fed/attachment.pgp>


More information about the LUG mailing list