I’m thinking of updating from suse 11, to suse11.1 from magazine disc. Is there a way to do this without deleting all my software packages and setting, or a way I can save my packages to a different drive and re-install them after the upgrade. I’ve migrated from windows and it’s very different, but find it’s a far superior system to windows and am enjoying the challenge even though I’m technologically challenged.
Thanks
A magazine disc. Umm…
It’s probably a cd version??
You could do what some have done.
Change all your repo’s to 11.1 equivalents
Logout of X and to the CLI. Login as user and go su
then do:
zypper ref
zypper dup
But backup first.
(I have done it in Virtual Machines and it works, but I know some have run in to trouble)
Careful – here in Oz they’re mostly DVD’s – the full deal.
Should you also remove 3rd party repos (like packman or build service repos eg virtualbox) temporarily while you do it, or does it not matter?
If you want to perform a “hot upgrade” (in the running system) you should try to update third party repos to the new version as well (if available).
Only removing third party repos can lead (and in most cases will) to conflicts or stalled packages if there is no newer version, compatible available.
So if you don’t want to add those third party repos during upgrade, removing the packages from these repos before you start upgrading is the right thing to do.
I made hot upgrades several times now and never had real problems, if you have a conflict, carefully reading the proposed solutions, using “brain 1.0” in choosing the right solution (i.e. if it’s a third party package causing a conflict, then remove is the right solution, you can always readd it later) and also noting removed packages with the “old style method” aka “write them down on a piece of paper” is also a good idea.
Creating a backup of your personal data before updating is also a must have, no matter if you try to upgrade or do a fresh install.