Introduction
Tumbleweed can be a challenge for new Linux users. The system is gradually and perpetually upgraded with new RPMs appearing almost daily in the Tumbleweed repositories. Zypper is the recommended tool for keeping your Tumbleweed distro up to date. You will receive messages from zypper regarding dependencies where you will make choices (very infrequently). If that could make you stressed, don’t install Tumbleweed.
There are various methods for upgrading to be found on the Net. The method here is designed to be cautious and low risk, and only a little confusing LOL.
First, have a look at the Tumbleweed Portal at openSUSE.org. Next join the mailing list mentioned there.
Be aware that your distro will no longer be openSUSE 12.x after the upgrade, it will be openSUSE Tumbleweed (based on the contemporary version of openSUSE).
Three steps
You will have installed the underlying, standard version 12.x of openSUSE. There are three principle steps after that:
- make all necessary software updates to your standard 12.x plus install of Packman’s 12.x RPMs before you do the upgrade
- add the Tumbleweed Repository and realign your Packman and openSUSE 12.x repositories (see further down the page)
- use zypper to upgrade your distro from openSUSE 12.x to openSUSE Tumbleweed
Repositories:
OpenSUSE 12.x users should already have these four key repositories installed/activated as a matter of course:
- openSUSE 12.x oss
- openSUSE 12.x non-oss
- Updates for openSUSE 12.x
- Packman for openSUSE 12.x
You might also have one or more of these Community repositories activated:
- Main Repository Contrib
- NVIDIA or ATI Repository
- other specialist repos like Google Earth etc
You shouldn’t have any factory repos activated unless you really know what you’re doing.
Now, before anything else, do step 1 above (make all necessary software updates plus installations of Packman’s 12.x RPMs before you start the Tumbleweed-upgrade process).
Next you rearrange your repos quite simply:
- add “openSUSE Tumbleweed” from here:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tumbleweed/standard/
- remove any 12.x standard Packman repositories
- add “Packman Tumbleweed” from here:
http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed
- replace “openSUSE 12.x oss” with “openSUSE Current oss” from here:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/repo/oss/
- replace “openSUSE 12.x non-oss” with “openSUSE Current non-oss” from here:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/repo/non-oss/
- replace “openSUSE 12.x Updates” with “openSUSE Current updates” from here:
http://download.opensuse.org/update/openSUSE-current/
- add “openSUSE non-oss Current updates” from here:
http://download.opensuse.org/update/openSUSE-non-oss-current/
- disable/remove NVIDIA or ATI repos (you have to install drivers for these “the hard way” after each kernel update).
You can use zypper to alter your repos or if yopu’re not a zypper expert you can go to Yast → Software → Software Repositories.
When you finish you should have repos as listed by “zypper ls” somewhat like this (I’ve chopped some unnecessary bits out to make it fit the page better):
john@tumbleweed:~> zypper lr -d
# | Name |Enable|Refresh|Priority| URI |
---+----------------------------------+------+-------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 | openSUSE Current updates | Yes | Yes | 99 | http://download.opensuse.org/update/openSUSE-current/ |
2 | openSUSE non-oss-Current updates | Yes | Yes | 99 | http://download.opensuse.org/update/openSUSE-non-oss-current/ |
3 | openSUSE Current non-oss | Yes | Yes | 99 | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/repo/non-oss/ |
4 | openSUSE Current oss | Yes | Yes | 99 | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-current/repo/oss/ |
5 | openSUSE Tumbleweed | Yes | Yes | 99 | http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tumbleweed/standard/ |
6 | Packman Tumbleweed | Yes | Yes | 99 | http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed |
Run the Upgrade: Become root in a console window and run this command
zypper dup
PS if you prefer to do a dummy run, then run this version first, using the dummy-run switch -D, like so: zypper dup -D
**[Updating your RPMs from this point forwards[/b]: Tumleweed is a distro with dynamic software. The RPMs are constantly evolving. Here is a strategy for upgrading your RPMs to keep abreast of the developing Tumbleweed distro. It’s not the only strategy. Feel free to use some other strategy.
Tumbleweed is being maintained by Greg K-H (see openSUSE Factory) who maintains the packages in the repos. He advocates having the following repos attached and enabled for going forward with the new distro (Tumbleweed): openSUSE Update repo, openSUSE-oss repo, openSUSE-non-oss repo and Tumbleweed repo/s. (reference: Gmane Loom)
I understand this to mean that repos 1-4 above are mandatory but as far as I’m concerned, you should/must have 5 (Packman Tumbleweed) as well.
If you use special packages from additional repos, you can/should enable the special repos, for example:
opensuse-contrib → http: //download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/12.x:/Contrib/standard/
Tumbleweed VirtualBox → http: //download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/opensuse/12.x/
Others as required…
Command for regular updates: zypper dup
Continue to use a simple dup with the command:
zypper dup
I recommend this approach because it’s the method used and recommended by the developer (Greg K-H, maintainer of the Tumbleweed repos).**
