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
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