Upgrading/Updating/Switching Linux Distros
2005-10-05 - James R. Williams Zavada - Draft
Major Distros: Slackware, Fedora, Debian, SuSe, Ubuntu, Mandrake/Mandriva
I. Overview
Updating, Upgrading and Switching Distros is a trade-off between
reliability/stability and convenience/new features.
The difference between Updating, Upgrading, and Switching Distros:
-> Updating -- upgrading packages of a specific Linux distro and version,
ie. for security updates, bug fixes, feature adds, etc.
-> Upgrading -- switching to a newer version of the same Linux distro, ie.
going from Slackware 9 to Slackware 10, or RedHat 7.2 to 7.3.
-> Switching -- using a different Linux distro, ie. going from Slackware
to Debian
-> Some Traditional SysAdmin Practices.
II. Updating (Safest and easiest to do, depending on distro & pkg mgmt)
1) Practices:
-> Make sure you have good backups!!!
-> watch for config file changes
2) Slackware and Older RedHat
-> Mix of package management and traditional SysAdmin practice.
-> Slackware: backup configs and remove old package, then install new
package
o Slackware pkg mgmt:
pkgtool - (TUI) Install/Remove packages
upgradepkg - (Cmdline) Upgrade a package
(upgradepkg [pkg_name])
-> Older RedHat: pkg config files are backed up as *.rpmsave files
o Older Redhat pkg mgmt:
a. List current installed packages:
rpm -qa | less
b. Use your favourite mirror site and download
updated packages to system.
c. Update each package:
rpm -U [package_file_name]
d. Review all *.rpmsave files, and add configs back
in accordingly.
3) Open Forum - Other distros
III. Upgrading (Not so safe and not always so easy, depending on distro & pkg
mgmt)
1) Practices:
-> Make sure you have good backups!!!
-> Only Upgrade one revision level at a time, don't skip!!!
ie. from RedHat 6.1 to 6.2, not 6.1 to 7.3
2) With many distros, boot from install disk, choose upgrade.
3) Open Forum - Other distros
IV. Switching Distros (Forget about safety, you're wiping the old distro
when you install the new one)
-> Make good backups!!!
-> Safest to install on new disk and mount old disk to
add in configuration info.
-> Best done when switching to a newer computer
V. Traditional SysAdmin Practices
-> Old School:
a. Make backups
b. Go to Distro site
c. Download updated pkgs
d. Install updates
e. Check for needed config changes
-> New School:
a. Run update tool (automatically updates installed pkgs)
- Fedora, Debian
OR
b. Enable automatic update feature
- Novell SUSE
-> Make good backups!!!
-> Be prepared for significant downtime!!!
-> Use separate filesystems for /home and /usr/local
-> Symlink /usr/local to /home/local can save partitioning work
-> Document customisations, and put as many as possible in /usr/local
-> If possible, experiment on a test system first
-> Only updates are done routinely. Upgrades or Distro switches are
done coincidentally with hardware upgrades (ie. moving to a new box).
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Slackware Reference - http://www.slackbook.org/html/