Is it possible to use the upgrade feature of 11.3 to upgrade from 11.0 ?
No, don’t try! I’ve just installed openSUSE 11.3 (previously using 11.0) and just backed up /home before performing a clean install. As /home was on a separate partition, it left my data intact.
I have 5 machines I want to bring from 11.0 to 11.3. They have quite a few add ons that a fresh install means wont get loaded unless I go to each machine and manually add the packages.
I am not so interested in preserving the settings in /home (easy to back up t’bird and ff settings).
When you say “No, don’t try!” does that mean you did and it doesn’t work. I would much prefer the zypper dup approach
When you say “No, don’t try!” does that mean you did and it doesn’t work.
No, I did a clean install (as mentioned previously). You can use the zypper dup approach, but be prepared for graphics and possibly network related issues for eample. (Its probably ok, as long as you’re not a new user). There are a few threads around here which concern new users who encountered unanticipated problems after upgrading like this - mostly arising from leftover and corrupted system config files.
Start with one machine and let us now how it went. 
On 2010-07-28 13:36, Alastairo wrote:
>
> Is it possible to use the upgrade feature of 11.3 to upgrade from 11.0 ?
Try, but make a full backup before starting - regardless of wether you choose update or fresh install.
Yes, it is possible. With the usual cautions, gotchas, etc. IMO, it will work better using the
traditional DVD method instead of the new zypper dup method. Or maybe not.
It has been asked here before. Thread: «Re: Upgrade 11.0 → 11.3»
Or here:
<http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2010-07/msg00541.html>
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))
I am pretty suspect about the upgrade from the booted DVD, done that in the past and its junked much of my system (upgrades what the DVD knows of, dumps or ignores the rest leaving a mess).
Can only back up and give it a go. All else fails, format and install from fresh, at least I get EXT4 that way.
All else fails, format and install from fresh, at least I get EXT4 that way.
I Agree
I’ve just converted /home to ext4 with no problems as well. OpenSUSE 11.3 has given my 4 yr old laptop (Z60m) a new lease of life, with a much quicker boot time, and the open source radeon driver provides far better 3D performance than the proprietary ATI driver ever did.
I did a DVD upgrade from 11.2 to 11.3 without too many issues. Of course you’re targeting 11.0, so you may encounter more issues - might be worth a shot if you’ve backed up first.
I made sure I had a working duplicate of my 11.2 installation in another partition (cloned with rsync, and then edited fstab and menu.1st - tested it could boot).
My /usr/local and /home are in there own partition, so I didn’t worry about them (aside from the normal daily backup via rsync).
I checked the DVD media, started the upgrade and left it to itself and returned to an upgraded system with a kdm login screen.
I had to put back Nvidia’s driver for my graphics card add add nomodeset to grub menu.1st.
I did clean up half a dozen rpmsave rpmnew files in /etc/, but some of those may have actually been from a previous upgrade. Fairly painless, the operational files we fine as I recall - so aside from checking I didn’t have to do anything.
My alternate boot of 11.2 from a second partition was removed from menu.1st by the upgrade, but that was a minor issue - I never needed to go back to 11.2 anyway.
I disabled any operating system backups until I was certain I wanted to keep 11.3.
Alastairo wrote:
> Is it possible to use the upgrade feature of 11.3 to upgrade from 11.0 ?
here is the definitive answer: what you ask is NOT a community
supported way to get from 11.0 to 11.3, see “Starting with openSUSE
11.2, a live upgrade from the prior version is officially supported.
This allows to perform a complete operating system update in place,
without reloading everything from scratch.” in
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade
no matter how much you prefer to do it another way, unfortunately the
most we can do is tell you to backup and try it the way you wish…
some (i think i recall a few claiming total success, but i’m not sure)
have been happy with non-supported methods (suggest you scower these
fora for those success, good luck)…but, mostly the ones we hear
from again say they did a fresh install after wasting time trying to
do it differently, then fix fix fix fix fix etc…
look on the bright side: once you get a nice stable 11.3 it will be
in-place-upgrade easy in about eight months, to 11.4
if you like revolving doors (said the man using 10.3)…
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
On 2010-07-29 08:36, mchnz wrote:
> I did a DVD upgrade from 11.2 to 11.3 without too many issues. Of
> course you’re targeting 11.0, so you may encounter more issues - might
> be worth a shot if you’ve backed up first.
I did 11.0 -> 11.2 the other day. Went fine, as usual. That machine has been upgraded all the way
from 8.1 during the years (and was a clone from a 7.3 system which in turn was upgraded from 5.2
over the years). No problems.
Notice that 11.0 to 11.2 on a pATA machine has the extra complication of going from /dev/hdX devices
to /dev/sdX devices. But it worked fine.
> I made sure I had a working duplicate of my 11.2 installation in
> another partition (cloned with rsync, and then edited fstab and menu.1st
> - tested it could boot).
That’s a very good precaution. In any case, it is good to have a second bootable system, for
emergencies.
> My /usr/local and /home are in there own partition, so I didn’t worry
> about them (aside from the normal daily backup via rsync).
And that is also a very good idea, specially for new installs: a new install formats /, so typically
/usr/local is lost. In upgrades, it should keep.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))
On 2010-07-29 11:34, DenverD wrote:
> Alastairo wrote:
>> Is it possible to use the upgrade feature of 11.3 to upgrade from 11.0 ?
>
> here is the definitive answer: what you ask is NOT a community
> supported way to get from 11.0 to 11.3, see “Starting with openSUSE
> 11.2, a live upgrade from the prior version is officially supported.
> This allows to perform a complete operating system update in place,
> without reloading everything from scratch.” in
> http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade
That refers to the “new” method of using “zypper dup”. It was available before that version, but not
supported (I know because we used it a lot in factory, it was the expected method to use).
However, the traditional method of booting the DVD and choosing “upgrade installation” has been
supported for years. For over a decade (I used it first in version 5.2).
So, by all means, try the upgrade. It works (usually). And if it doesn’t… you did a full backup,
right? >:-)
At worst, you “use” some time, gain experience, and can do a fresh install later. Or restore. Or
restore and try upgrade again. 
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))
Carlos E. R. wrote:
> However, the traditional method of booting the DVD and choosing
> “upgrade installation” has been supported for years.
is news to me…
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
On 2010-07-29 13:54, DenverD wrote:
> Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> However, the traditional method of booting the DVD and choosing
>> “upgrade installation” has been supported for years.
>
> is news to me…
Check the boxes - I have a few
Of course, supported, supported… as far as anything is supported in SuSE/SUSE/openSUSE linux. It
means that you write a Bugzilla and will not be automatically written off as “invalid”, not much more.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))