On 2011-04-28 14:36, grbrown wrote:
>
> I have had a look round and so far the consensus seems to be that you
> cannot upgrade a 11.1 system to 11.4, is that right?
If you asked me, no. >:-)
> I have a small server running for a charity, it runs Oracle Apex, Kerio
> Connect and acts as a file server using Samba. It has KDE4 on it. The
> reason for upgrading would be to continue to receive updates for the
> OS.
>
> Has anyone any advice on where to start with this or whether it is a
> dead loss?
You can certainly upgrade. You always can. I always do.
But, you have to be aware of things.
The problems found on an upgrade are different of those on a new install,
and can require a bit more expertise or patience.
Note: a zypper dup upgrade is not supported across two or more versions. It
has been reported to work, but it is almost chance. However, a
DVD-boot-upgrade is supported, at least from 11.1 to 11.3, or 11.2 to 11.4.
You might want to consider a two step dvd-boot-upgrade. Or try a direct
dvd-boot-upgrade, following the recommendations.
Recommendations:
Do a full backup. And I mean it. It has to be good enough to restore the
machine to a working state if things go wrong. It can be used to restore
and try again, or to try a fresh install instead with a backup of the
previous install for reference and retrieval.
Try a small fresh install on a spare partition of the same machine. It is
used as a recovery system, as a try out of the target system features and
problems, and as a source of “new” configuration for the upgraded system.
Do not attempt the upgrade till this works.
For example: video system is very different in 11.1 and 11.4. If the video
doesn’t work after the upgrade, you can use the other partition configuration.
There maybe other things I have forgotten but explained many times.
Read the book.
> http://doc.opensuse.org/products/opensuse/openSUSE/opensuse-reference/cha.update.html
After an upgrade there are many configuration files that are changed and
many not changed. Many of those (both types) require revision. The script
“rcrpmconfigcheck” generates a file with a list of configuration files you
have to review. Example:
Telcontar:~ # rcrpmconfigcheck
Searching for unresolved configuration files done
Please check the following files (see /var/adm/rpmconfigcheck):
/etc/clamd.conf.rpmnew
/etc/freshclam.conf.rpmnew
/etc/zypp/zypp.conf.rpmnew
This is a tedious task that needs to be done.
Another method for servers requires having two installs in two sets of
partitions. One is the current sytem, on the other set you install 11.4.
When you have it working with all the services you need (which may take
days), you switch default boot to that set. You do not delete the other set
till you need to do another upgrade, hopefully in a year or two.
What you can not do on a server system is a fresh install replacing the
current install.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)