Upgrading to Opensuse 11.4

Hello,
I have opensuse 11.3 and I decided I would like to upgrade 11.4. However, I am quite concerned about a few things.
I am running a dual boot with windows xp and when I was upgrading from 11.2 to 11.3 I managed to delete my windows partition somehow. (I am not very good when it comes to partitions and installations:) I have some important programmes and things on my windows partition and I really don’t want to lose those.
That’s why I really welcomed the new option to upgrade without actually having to reinstall the whole system with the installation DVD.
However, the page says that the whole process can be quite unstable and I don’t want to end up with a broken computer. Also I don’t know how the upgrade process could affect my windows partition and whether it does something with it at all or ignores it completely.
The other thing is that I am unsure I will actually be able to perform the upgrade because when I try to run yast I get an error which says

Failed to download /repodata/repomd.xml from http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/SuSE/11.3/
History:

  • [AbstractCommand.cc:224] URl=http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/SuSE/11.3/repodata/repomd.xml

I am not sure why this happens, before it ran fine for almost a year.

thank you very much for help

Hello there,
the upgrade might really not be the best solution, so I will just try to explain how to do a new installation.

Ok first you insert a blank dvd and burn the new opensuse iso image on it.(11.4, as you said). After you burned it, you just reboot your pc. If the pc doesn’t boot from you’re burned dvd, you need to set it up using you’re bios menu. You can access it by pressing F2 while the pc is booting(it might be another key, depending on which mainboard you have, but the option to access the Bios should be displayed.) Once arrived in the Bios menu, you just set your cd drive to boot first, when the computer is launching.

optional: there should be an option displayed while booting, where to boot from(in my case it’s F8)

Next you will see some options on how to install it. Just tick the box with auto configuration. As far as I can remember, you enter some information about user etc. next.
Then the important part pops up !!!partitioning!!!:
You don’t want to erase your windows partition/s so you’ve got to configure the partitioning manually. It would be helpful, if you know, where windows is installed on.(otherwise, it is probably the one partition containing the NFTS format; Windows: NFTS/fat32 Linux: ext3/ext4 etc. ) So once you’ve located your windows and linux partitions, you can edit them, or even use the old home partition.

Advice: I don’t know, if you partitioned you’re linux system in the first place into /, /home, /boot and swap,(or anything different) so you might not be able to use you’re old home partition. Considering this, I would recommend to do so now.(I mean creating partitions)

Assuming, you just clicked on “install next to windows” in your previous installation, simply erase the linux partition. Now you’ve got free space available to create new partitions, such as /, /home, /boot, /swap
→ you didn’t touch the windows partition at all

so after selecting format, size and mount point of the new partitions, just click on next and install. It should stay a dual boot, because you didn’t actually change anything. The windows partitions are still there and the linux ones(in this case opensuse) just got replaced.

Using this method you even get rid of the problem, that you can’t download any repositories.

I hope this helped
You might also want to watch some videos on how to partition your linux system on youtube, or just ask for any further information.

Summary:
→ Do not upgrade, because it is unstable + you’re little bug
→ just install a new system next to the old windows system(replace the old linux system) → you probably won’t have any problems now(your repository problem was probably due to this power upgrade of the opensuse servers yesterday)
→ If any questions just ask
lol!

On 2011-05-01 12:06, tarkowski wrote:

> That’s why I really welcomed the new option to upgrade without actually
> having to reinstall the whole system with the installation DVD.
> However, the page says that the whole process can be quite unstable and
> I don’t want to end up with a broken computer.

What page?

Upgrades simply pose a different set of problems than fresh install, and as
few people say they do them, those problems are a bit unknown. I have been
doing upgrades for years with only one big failure, and I learnt from it.

I have explained recently the procedure and recommendations, so I will not
write it again.

> The other thing is that I am unsure I will actually be able to perform
> the upgrade because when I try to run yast I get an error which says
>
> Failed to download /repodata/repomd.xml from
> http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/SuSE/11.3/

Reported bug. Unknown solution. Wait, or bypass.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

So, just make a fresh install and create new partitions, so you can keep your windows stuff and get rid of previous problems with your old system.