Hello List,
I’m moving this thread from multimedia because the topic changed to upgrade. There under whych’s guidance, I downlaoded the 10.3 mini-iso net upgrade file and burned an iso image into a cd.
The seeming “catch 22” situation that results is that there is no network connection when booting from the iso cd.
whych gave me an upgrade URL, so I think it’s possible to accomplish what I want, but I can’t make this work without some help.
My modem is a PCI HW modem that is controlled by KPPP in 10.2.
The reason for the 10.3 upgrade step is that I’m waiting for 11.3 to make the next jump in version.
My bootable iso cd has a list of network card drivers to load, but no modem drivers. It also has features to load modules or a file.
When I do an lsmod with 10.2, I don’t see any modem modules loaded, but the modem works.
So is this a real “Catch 22”? Is there some magic to make this upgrade work?
Frank K
That’s not a reason, it’s a statement ;). If you consider it a valid reason, you’re reasoning yourself in a doubtful situation: 10.3 is at the end of it’s life cycle, so there will be quite some time you will have no security updates etc. before 11.3 is out.
I’ve met people who believe the XX.3 versions are the best. In all my XX.0, XX.1, XX.2, XX.3 years I’ve never been able to find any confirmation for their belief.
One of my major objections against doing this would be the zypper/Yast story. If you’d switch to 11.0 or 11.1 instead of 10.3 the use of the software installer only would save enough time to read the entire New York Public Library index before 11.3 is out. Another one is, that you’ll miss all the improvements, enhancements etc. made since 10.3.
To illustrate: I manage some company servers, running 24/7 all year, most of them on openSUSE 11.1 now. Keeping them up to date only resulted in a couple of reboots (on kernel change, networking continued from where it was) and a couple of hours downtime on a carefully planned Sunday afternoon (for a version upgrade). Just checked one of them: total network downtime in 2008: 7 hours 32 minutes, including upgrade to 11.0, upgrade to 11.1, several reboots and a 5 hour 2 minutes power outage.
So please, do yourself a favor, sit back for a while and think it over. Find real reasons not to switch to 11.0 or 11.1 (i.e. known hardware failures, etc.). If low memory is the problem, these days even SDRAM is available at very low price, only DDR3 still is expensive.
Thanks for the response, Knurpht!
It was news to me that 10.3 will be long dead before 11.3 happens.
I do have a complete 11.0 DVD that I installed on a friend’s computer. It seemed a little rough to me.
Knurpht, what do you think of a modem network upgrade from 11.0 to 11.1? I would probably stick with KDE3 until I move to 11.3.
Also I do have a Pentium 3 here with 10.2 and a working modem. It’s motherboard has network card built in as does my Pentium 4.
I’ve never attempted to network it with my Pentium 4 across the room. I’ll look around for a LAN cable just in case.
Is it fair for me to have two threads posted on the same subject?
Frank K
heboland
I think you are mis-reading Knurpht’s response.
What he is saying is that by the time you have completed a modem upgrade/install, 11.3 would have been released.
Unfortunately, modems are not really an option nowdays unless for emergency or small file transfers. Some internet sites have got so top heavy with graphics and bells and whistles that they take forever to load on a dial-up.
whych, I think I see your point and Knurpht’s point. That would be the time difference between a DVD installer and a network install using a modem.
I’m thinking now that I should install the 11.0 and use it until 11.2 or 11.3 are available.
Thank you for your comments, whych! Frank K