Installing/Upgrading on a VPS

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I have a VPS with SUSE 11 64-bit installed on it.

This as it turns out is 11.1.

On looking at the repository it has none listed, so getting updates is kinda hard. I added the 11.1 repository, or what I thought was it, but it tells me it can’t update as it needs an x64 installation.

I’ve tried changing the repositories to 11.2, but get the same message, that it needs an x64 installation.

I’m aware it’s best to upgrade with a fresh install off DVD, but this is something I can’t do with a VPS.

So, I guess my questions are …

  1. Is it possible to upgrade to 11.2 or 11.3 from 11.1 … I know it’s not overly advised, but is there a way to do it?

  2. What’s the actual requirements for these or what repositories should I be pointing to? Because, I’m already on 64-bit, so I don’t get why they wouldn’t work.

  3. Is there any issues with staying on 11.1? And if I do, then what repositories should I be using?

Thanks

2

An update, just to clarify my issue more and to give some better info, as I’m aware there’s a few problems like this …

Uname -a returns:

Linux crazybard 2.6.18-194.8.1.el5.028stab070.2 #1 SMP Tue Jul 6 14:55:39 MSD 2010 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

…so from what I can tell, I -am- running on an x86_64 system.

Repositories I set to:

http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.x/repo/oss/
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.x/repo/non-oss/
http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.x/

… I’ve tried both 11.1 and 11.2 repositories and Zypper does find them but gives errors.

This is the error I keep getting…

(with --nodeps --force) Error: Subprocess failed. Error: RPM failed: package gpg2-lang-2.0.9-25.109.1.x86_64 is intended for a x86_64 architecture

…which to me doesn’t make sense as it tells me I’m on x86_64.

So this is where I’m stumped … just how do I upgrade, can I even upgrade on this system, and if need be is there any issue in staying with 11.1? … I don’t want to be on an unsupported OS, but I don’t really want to have to change to something else.

My VPS provider is looking into this for me, so maybe there’s some hope there. But in the meantime, maybe one of you guys can give me some pointers.

3

One thing for sure: 2.6.18-194.8.1.el5.028stab070.2 is not the openSUSE 11.1 kernel, that one is 2.6.27.7-9-kernel-flavor.

Sure it’s openSUSE that’s running? Check like this:


cat /etc/SuSE-release
4

el5 in the kernel name indicates RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 or CentOS 5.

5

I get this:

crazybard:~ # cat /etc/SuSE-release
openSUSE 11.1 (x86_64)
VERSION = 11.1

The VPS is on OpenVZ, which I’m guessing is why the kernel reports something different and maybe why I’m having upgrade problems?

But that said, I’ve had no issues running/updating CentOS or Debian… but I don’t really want to go back to either of them :frowning:

6

Well if the base kernel is CentOS but the rest of the install is openSUSE, that might cause the updater to go nutso because it bases decisions on the output of uname.

7

Is there anyway around this or am I going to have to use the 11.1 install as provided by the VPS provider?

Down the road I can re-install 11.2/11.3 when they provide the build, but in the meantime I would of at least liked to make sure my 11.1 build was as up-to-date as it can be :frowning:

8

Maybe this might help? Set the release name to one that looks like openSUSE.

[Users] Set kernel name (uname) for VE](http://openvz.org/pipermail/users/2008-June/002007.html)

It is still possible you may experience problems using a CentOS kernel with an openSUSE install. Ideally, the host kernel should have come from openSUSE also (built with OpenVZ patches of course).