Upgrading from 13.2 to Tumbleweed - is it possible/recommended?

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#1

Hi,

I have an old 32-bit laptop with only 512mb RAM which has been running openSUSE since I bought it many years ago. I am not planning to upgrade any of its hardware as it is doing the task it is used for just fine. Today it is with version 13.2 which as I read is reaching the end of its life in a few days:

https://en.opensuse.org/Lifetime

I wonder what my options are:

1. Upgrade to Tumbleweed?

As I mentioned in this thread it seemed impossible to install directly Tumbleweed which is strange because this same computer used to run an earlier version of Tumbleweed without problems. But as reported in the thread it seems a direct install may not be possible any more (perhaps the installer suddenly needs more ram). So I am thinking - is it possible to do a system upgrade to Tumblweed instead of installing from scratch in order to avoid the potential issues mentioned in the other thread? If yes - can you recommend how to do it?

2. Stay with 13.2 and never be able to update software

That would be quite an unfortunate option although perhaps the one requiring least work.

3. Change distro?

I would really prefer to stay with openSUSE as I am very used to it.

4. Anything else?

#2

  1. yes. but others currently are seeing issues with the new 4.9 kernel. sooooo…

  2. Well depends on what it is used for. If not used on the internet probably safe enough but don’t put any important state secrets on it :stuck_out_tongue:

  3. Always possible but 512 meg is mighty slime today unless you go for a very light weight distro

#3

I’m running os Tumbleweed on a 32bit laptop too, but with 2GB RAM.
Lately I had to reinstall TW, because I had messed too much with the system …

  • Net-Install: Didn’t work
  • full DVD install: Didn’t work
    BUT: Starting the network installation from the full DVD worked!

This might be worth another try.

Hendrik

#4

So… it seems a tricky situation.
Perhaps I could try the process of upgrading in a VM first.