[lug] upgrading from redhat-6.1

[Jeff Schroeder]

Kevin wrote:

> First off, I would suspect it might be easier to just backup the
> users data and do a clean install.

I wholeheartedly agree.  I find that when doing a major upgrade it's 
invariably easier to just preserve the user data and reinstall the OS.  
It saves a lot of time, headache, and frustration.  In attempting an 
upgrade there will be hundreds of dependency problems, as each package 
you try to upgrade will undoubtably depend on a newer version of some 
other package.  The incompatibilities between RPM 3 and 4 are only the 
beginning.

As a general rule, I try to keep all the user data in /home and make 
sure all my application data (e.g., Apache, SSH, FTP, DNS configuration 
files) can be dumped to a tar file.  This allows me to upgrade the OS 
wholesale, then reinstate the users via an /etc/passwd replacement, and 
get all the applications back the way I want by untarring my archive.  
Just be sure when you're running the install you don't reformat /home! 
;)

Good luck,
Jeff