help upgrading from 11.0 to 11.2

hello, everyone…
it’s been some time since i’ve posted in the forums, since my system has been near flawless since my linux conversion…

i’m running opensuse 11.0 on a dell laptop…
i want to upgrade to 11.2, however, i am very cautious about losing my files. there are files on this system which i absolutely can not afford to lose, and they are only on this system.

i need help figuring out which method of upgrade will be the best, best as in safest.
i’ve been looking through the forums, and my question has not been answered yet…thus, i must ask the question flat out.
will someone(s) please assist me, or point me in the right direction, in upgrading from 11.0 to 11.2?

the opensuse community has been sooo great to me, anytime i’ve needed assistance. please dont let me down now, family.
THANKS MUCH!!!

You pose an impossible question.

If you absolutely can’t afford to lose the files, then don’t upgrade under any circumstances (unless the data is threatened by the age of the system.)

Turn the system off if you possibly can - until you can do a backup.

It may not be the answer you want to hear, but any other answer is reckless given that someone’s stated that they can’t lose the data.

If what you really mean is that you’d rather not, because you’d have to download a load of films again, or whatever… Well, I think removing all packages that aren’t part of the base install, then using the DVD to upgrade the system offline is probably the safest way.

It still might frazzle your data though…

Back up the critical files you mentioned, before you upgrade.

If they are that important, I would keep a backup of them anyway.

Regards,
Barry.

I agree backup your data.

Assuming you have a standard Suse install ie swap root and home partitions. And your important data is on /home. You can do a new install but at the point where the partition scheme happens manually change the the home partition to NOT format. Allow the installer TO format the root partition. Also be sure these are the correct partitions. If you don’t know type mount at a command line and record what is mounted to which partitions before doing the install.

This is better then the upgrade option since upgrade does not wipe out the old OS and misc setting can cause problems.

If you are moving between KDE 3.5 to 4.3 then it may save grief to rename the .kde directory in your home to .kde.old (just before reboot! or from terminal) and just brace yourself to reconfigure your desktop.

Buy a 16GB flash USB, external disk drive… what ever; but back up those files next time you turn your computer on.

You just need 8GB system partition or so, to install nice 11.2 system, that doesn’t touch 11.0, so you can migrate at your own pace.

In future seperate your data (/home plus other partitions) from the OS, it’ll make upgrades in future much less stressful.

In my regular installs of 11.2, (sometimes importing mount points) when doing custom partitioning; would by default NOT format existing partitions.

I would actually have to tell the installer to re-format any filesystems I wanted over-laying.

Don’t be afraid to choose Create, Custom Partitioning for experts, it lets you mount things as you like, and change options, as well as providing a good overview of the disk.

thanks everyone for your helpful responses.

my main question was basically whether i would simply (*simply) be able to do a smooth upgrade. it appears not.
no problem.
i did backup those files on a flash drive that i found and had, but was unable to get my system to read until today.
sooo, i will just (*simply) do a fresh install of 11.2 when i have the time to reconfigure all that will need to be reconfigured.
this will be a good thing, as it will afford me another opportunity to be further educated in the oh so wonderful world of linux.

thanks again for all of your help.
sbk

Back up the files by burning them on a CD/DVD or by putting them on a usb flash drive

hello, people.
i just wanted to update on the upgrade.
…well, as of last night, i’m running opensuse 11.2.
i must say that it is smoother, seems lighter (despite the vast improvements), and feels more 21century, than my very very well functioning 11.0 setup.
after installing, i was surprised to see that all of the files that i backed up were present in the fresh 11.2. even the basic structure of my desktop settings were retained.
…it did take me a while to figure out how to use the network manager, and get my wireless operating…but 1 and half to 2 hours is sooo much better than a couple days to a week, like it was with my 11.0…so glad the opensuse geniuses integrated the b43 drivers, etc., rather than having us go on multiple quests.
the opensuse community helped tremendously with the wirless setup…the op.su community also helped evenmore with my compiz issues…it took me many hours to setup; finally just scrapping all of the compiz i installed and following one of the direct tutorials of one of the op.su geniuses (too lazy to find and paste thread link here)

now, although as of my waking today i havent had the issues yet…before i went to sleep at 5-6 something this morning, i had many–no, MMAANNYY–crashes!! from a variety of actions: rotating a cube, switching desktops, closing yast, closing firefox, deleting a panel, changing mouse settings, and a couple other things i cant remember (as my patience was gone, and my energy was drained).

…so, has anyone else been having these crashing issues??
i havent sent bug reports, nor have i posted diagnostics here, because from my experiences with opensuse, these issues somehow miraculously work themselves out…so, i’m being patient about it.
but, if any of you uber-intelligent folk here have any uber-intelligent insights on this crashing, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share!!

thanks, friends

Here are the steps how I successfully did a live upgrade from 11.0 to 11.2:

  1. Open Yast’s Software Repositories, disable the rest, enable & edit the following:
    -Updates (edit & change 11.0 to 11.2)
    -Oss (edit & change 11.0 to 11.2)
    -Non-Oss (edit & change 11.0 to 11.2)
    Save & exit

  2. Make sure you run the following commands as root or
    #sudo zypper in zypper
    #sudo zypper ref
    #sudo zypper dup
    (It would take around 2 to 3 hours to upgrade, it depends on your connection speed)
    Once upgrade is completed, reboot the system.
    At 1st reboot, it won’t boot in GUI mode (Gnome). The command prompt will show up. Run this command as root or:
    #sudo zypper update
    Once the update is completed, reboot the system & there you have it! Suse 11.2 login screen in GUI (in my case it’s Gnome).

  3. Open Yast’s Software Repositories, you may now enable those repositories as you would like such as OpenOffice, Mozilla, Packman & other 3rd party’s.
    Open & run Yast’s Online Update Configuration
    Open & run Yast’s Online Update

Are you using KDE or GNOME? Also do these crashes occur with Desktop Effects turned off? Do you have your graphics drivers installed correctly?

Take Care,

Ian