Hi all,
I’ve had a successfully running Opensuse 12.1 machine for the past 2+ years. I am starting to find that some packages aren’t as well supported any more and need to upgrade.
In the past I’ve always done a clean install via dvd. These days however I am pressed for time and was considering an update by just changing repositories and doing a upgrade via zypper -dup. Is this a really bad idea? I haven’t followed development in Opensuse land for the past 2 years so I don’t know how much has changed. Any guidance would be appreciated.
btw my machine is an Asus A7k laptop.
I would rather use the NET install CD to do the upgrade, provided that your network connection is supported out of the box of course.
Or the full DVD, this also provides an option to “Upgrade an existing installation”.
There have been many critical changes between 12.1 and 13.1 that could cause the online upgrade to fail/hang. F.e. the move of most stuff from /bin to /usr/bin/, /lib/ to /usr/lib/, /var/run/ to /run (see also https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=802525 for an upgrade problem that might affect you). And of course you cannot use sysvinit anymore on 13.1, but systemd was used by default on 12.1 already anyway (but it was possible to switch back to sysvinit).
And it’s not supported to skip releases when doing the online upgrade. (this doesn’t mean it will not work, but you should expect problems and having to invest time to fix them)
I cannot even say for sure that the offline upgrade will work flawlessly from 12.1 to 13.1, but you can still do a fresh install afterwards if not. 
On 2014-05-14 22:26, wolfi323 wrote:
> I would rather use the NET install CD to do the upgrade, provided that
> your network connection is supported out of the box of course.
> Or the full DVD, this also provides an option to “Upgrade an existing
> installation”.
I concur.
> There have been many critical changes between 12.1 and 13.1 that could
> cause the online upgrade to fail/hang.
In fact, the online upgrade (zypper dup) to a version that is not the
next one, is not supported. And even then, the system has to be fully
updated prior to attempting the version upgrade.
> And it’s not supported to skip releases when doing the online upgrade.
> (this doesn’t mean it will not work, but you should expect problems and
> having to invest time to fix them)
Actually, it should crash. At least, you have to update zypper itself
(and its toolchain) first.
> I cannot even say for sure that the offline upgrade will work flawlessly
> from 12.1 to 13.1, but you can still do a fresh install afterwards if
> not.
It is not a road full of roses, but it works. I have done 11.4 to 13.1
myself.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))
Thanks for the quick response all. DVD upgrade it is then. I will be sure to post how well it works out of the box. I’ll be sure to do a proper backup first in case a real install is required
Yes. You should always do that, anyway, before any major work.
On 2014-05-15 00:46, gavinto wrote:
>
> Thanks for the quick response all. DVD upgrade it is then. I will be
> sure to post how well it works out of the box. I’ll be sure to do a
> proper backup first in case a real install is required
Online upgrade
method
Offline upgrade
method
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))