Upgrade(1).pdf

Upgrading Your linux Distribution mini−HOWTO

Greg Louis

glouis@dynamicro.on.ca

Hints and tips on upgrading from one linux distribution to another. This is version 1.2, 2002−03−09.

Upgrading Your linux Distribution mini−HOWTO

Table of Contents

1. IMPORTANT!!! Disclaimer and Copyright. ...............................................................................................1

2. Changes since version 1.1. ..............................................................................................................................2

3. Introduction. ....................................................................................................................................................3

3.1. How to slay and reincarnate your linux box!. ...................................................................................3

3.2. Why would anyone want to do that?.. ...............................................................................................3

3.3. Do you have to ``destroy and reinstall?'. ..........................................................................................4

3.4. How long will it take?. ......................................................................................................................4

4. Write down everything you do. .....................................................................................................................5

5. Make a full backup of the existing system.. ..................................................................................................6

6. Back up /etc and its subdirectories on one or more floppies.. ....................................................................7

7. Make separate backups of each group of files you want to preserve.. .......................................................8

8. Prepare root and boot floppies for the new installation.. ............................................................................9

9. Format floppies for the temporary kernel and the final build.. ...............................................................10

10. Inhibit logins and back up the /root and /home trees.. ............................................................................11

11. Boot from the new installation's boot and root floppies. ........................................................................12

12. Delete the linux partitions with fdisk and recreate them.. ......................................................................13

13. Run the new linux installation.. .................................................................................................................14

14. Restore configuration data to the /etc directory and subdirectories. ....................................................15

15. Configure and rebuild the linux kernel. ...................................................................................................16

16. Restore the stuff from the backups you made earlier. ............................................................................17

17. Review security.. .........................................................................................................................................18

18. Enable logins.. .............................................................................................................................................19

19. Sorry, but once again: USE THIS INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN RISK!. ...................................20

20. Acknowledgements. ....................................................................................................................................21

1. IMPORTANT!!! Disclaimer and Copyright

The procedure to which this document attempts to be a guide is inherently dangerous to the programs and

data stored in your computer. You carry out any such procedure entirely at your own risk. The steps

described in this document worked for the author; there is no guarantee that they will work for you, nor that

you can attempt to follow them without serious damage to your computer's programs and/or data. You are

entirely on your own in any use you may make of the information presented herein, and the author shall not

be liable in any way whatsoever for any damage or inconvenience of any kind that you may suffer in so doing.

the GNU General Public License. This basically means that you may copy and modify it at will, but may not

prevent others from doing likewise.

Comments and questions may be directed to the author. Especially welcome, for use in future revisions, are

accounts of successful upgrades of complex systems.

1. IMPORTANT!!! Disclaimer and Copyright

2. Changes since version 1.1

· Corrected some obsolete information

Converted to docbook

· Added this history section

· Added Zoltán Hidvégi's suggestion re mtime and ctime. Thanks, Zoltán!

· Added an Acknowledgements section

2. Changes since version 1.1

3. Introduction

3.1. How to slay and reincarnate your linux box!

The purpose of this document is to offer tips to help you through the destruction and reinstallation of a linux

system. It's not a foolproof cookbook by any means, but I hope it will serve as some indication of what you

need to think about, and of the order in which to do things. It would have been a help to me, if someone else

had written something like this before I did my first upgrade; so I hope it will be a help to you, if you have a

linux machine to rebuild.

Don't take it as gospel, though: your mileage will almost certainly vary. Even the directory names in this

document may be different from the ones you need to use; some people have /usr/home instead of /home, for

example; others call it /u, and some (delicate shudder :) even put all their users directly under /usr itself! I

can't be specific about your system, so I've just used the names the way they are in mine.

You'll also notice that I use Slackware distributions, and that I assume you've enough RAM and hard disk

space to install linux kernel source and build your own kernel. If your system is different, some of my

recommendations won't apply; but I hope you'll still find the general outline to be of assistance in your

rebuild project.

3.2. Why would anyone want to do that?

Good question! If it can possibly be avoided, don't do it! (That's the single most important recommendation

in this whole guide!!!) When this guide was first written, not many people had hard disks big enough to

accomodate two whole Linux installations; these days, that's by no means uncommon. If you possibly can,

build your new system in a separate partition (or group of partitions), keeping the old one intact till you're

satisfied that the new one is just the way you want it. If you can avoid destroying the old system to make

room for the new, by all means avoid it! But there are times when you may have no choice.

(These examples are a bit dated, but they serve to illustrate my point:)

For example, I installed a 4Gb hard disk and then found out that Slackware 2.0 vintage linux didn't know a

hard disk could have more than 2Gb, and it got horribly confused. So I had to upgrade to the then−current

Slackware 2.3. That upgrade was a gruelling experience, and it's part of the reason I'm writing these notes. I

did just about everything wrong, and only good luck and the fact that I had another running linux box beside

me saved me from disaster.

As another example, I found that I just couldn't succeed in building a working a.out linux kernel in the 1.3

series, using an out−of−the−box Slackware 2.3 installation (another machine, not the one I botched before). I

took the plunge, bought Slackware 3.0 on CDROM and converted to ELF. This time the reinstallation went

better, thanks in part to the previous bitter experience, and it served as the source of most of the ideas I'm

offering you here.

3. Introduction

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: