I’m running v12.2. From reading it seems I need to choose install and keep data rather than upgrade.
So I will select keep data, I presume that selection applies only for /home?
I have backed up /etc for reference.
My question concerns /opt and /usr/share
Are they overwritten?
Thanks, jon
If you do a new install, none of your existing partitions will be overwritten. Your SWAP partition, will be reused. openSUSE will attempt to find free space and shrink partitions if required. If the number of existing partitions added to a new /home and root / can’t be made to work, the installation will not proceed.
Now your options are to do an upgrade which means your /home will be reused and not formatted and openSUSE will reuse root /, while updating everything to the latest versions. Upgrades are more likely to have a few oddities, for instance I have heard of a problem with Audacious being screwy. One user did not realize you should uninstall any proprietary drivers for video like nVIDIA should they exist before the upgrade.
In general, you need to understand partitioning and how many you can have. You need to know what you have and if they are MBR or GPT formatted hard drives. I have a write up on disk partitions you can read here:
Creating Partitions During Install for MBR and GPT Hard Disks - Blogs - openSUSE Forums
So I ask for you to tell us what you have first and what you want when complete. It would be helpful for you to execute some terminal commands for us and post the results in a message enclosed within code # tages. Open up terminal and run these commands:
su -
fdisk -l
df
cat /etc/fstab
Thank You,
On 2013-11-23 02:06, 6520302 wrote:
>
> I’m running v12.2. From reading it seems I need to choose install and
> keep data rather than upgrade.
Why?
> So I will select keep data, I presume that selection applies only for
> /home?
Yes.
> I have backed up /etc for reference.
> My question concerns /opt and /usr/share
> Are they overwritten?
Completely.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
James:
Thank you, I will read the info in your link before proceeding. I neglected to mention that this is for x64 machine.
This is the results of the code you requested:
linux-shpr:~ # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xf44763df
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 80324 40131 16 Hidden FAT16
/dev/sda2 * 81920 1953523711 976720896 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 83968 16883711 8399872 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 16885760 58830847 20972544 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 58832896 1953503231 947335168 83 Linux
linux-shpr:~ # df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 20641788 8973800 10619364 46% /
devtmpfs 4067688 44 4067644 1% /dev
tmpfs 4076112 160 4075952 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 4076112 736 4075376 1% /run
/dev/sda6 20641788 8973800 10619364 46% /
tmpfs 4076112 0 4076112 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 4076112 736 4075376 1% /var/run
tmpfs 4076112 736 4075376 1% /var/lock
tmpfs 4076112 0 4076112 0% /media
/dev/sda7 932469992 274040556 657482104 30% /home
linux-shpr:~ # cat /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000524AS_5VPD6PXP-part5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000524AS_5VPD6PXP-part6 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000524AS_5VPD6PXP-part7 /home ext4 defaults 1 2
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
linux-shpr:~ #
As for video drivers, I have an onboard Intel i915 (Ivy Bridge) controller which is currently disabled in the bios and an AMD Radeon HD 7570 controller installed. For that Radeon I have applied the ATI upgrade posted last year by “Please Try Again”. I presume that I may have to revert to the onboard Intel controller if I have problems with the Radeon card. I’ll find out about that after I start the install.
Robin:
Thanks, it seems that /opt & /usr will be overwritten and I will need to take steps to ensure that I am aware of the impact of that.
Jon
On 2013-11-23 06:06, 6520302 wrote:
> Robin:
>
> Thanks, it seems that /opt & /usr will be overwritten and I will need to
> take steps to ensure that I am aware of the impact of that.
But you still do not explain why you say that you can not upgrade.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
Carlos, it would mean 12.2 -> 12.3 -> 13.1 .
To the OP: on my server/workstation I have 2 installs on the 30GB SSD, both using the same /home. It allows me to copy over stuff from f.e. /opt, consult the config files in /etc and so on.
On 2013-11-23 16:26, Knurpht wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2600782 Wrote:
>> But you still do not explain why you say that you can not upgrade.
> Carlos, it would mean 12.2 -> 12.3 -> 13.1 .
So? 
{smile}
Do it offline.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
Robin:
OK, what I wrote was “From reading it seems I need to choose install and keep data rather than upgrade.”
I didn’t say I could not upgrade, other threads here, and I have not read them all, left me with the impression I should just install because starting at v12.2 was too far back in the past.
I have wondered about the possibility of doing it in 2 steps, 12.2->12.3->13.1 and have not ruled that method out, it seems like the recommendation to install and keep data makes more sense. I do not have a highly customized desktop, just a few apps that would require reinstall, IF that is what I need to do. My post was meant to help me decide what I do need to do.
From James’ query asking for fdisk & df info I presume that there might be a recommendation to have 2 separate installs and the post from Knurpht also hints to that. I think this means I will have to shrink my existing partitions. This might be more challenging than merely reinstalling the few apps I wish to run.
When you comment “do it offline” you are referring to DVD upgrade 12.2-> 12.3?
I do not intend to do an online install or upgrade regardless of my final decision. My opinion is that it’s too risky and I’d rather go through a 5 hr FTP transaction and burn a 12.3 DVD.
Rgds, Jon
On 2013-11-23 19:16, 6520302 wrote:
> When you comment “do it offline” you are referring to DVD upgrade 12.2->
> 12.3?
Yes.
Contrary to the “zypper dup” method, or online system upgrade, the
offline upgrade method does support jumps, or at least, not anybody has
said the contrary (officially). How big the jump, nobody has said,
either. I assume that you can jump from a currently supported distro
version to another currently supported version, and both 12.2 and 13.1
are currently supported. Bigger jumps have been made, though.
(it is even possible to upgrade from 32 bits to 64 bits,
although not supported)
The only thing known for sure is that the bigger the jump is, the bigger
the problems might be.
Many people say that it is better to install fresh than upgrade. I say
“not so”. Depends. It is true that usually you bump into some problems
that you have to solve, often yourself (specially if your computer
doesn’t work).
I have been doing offline upgrades with (open)SUSE since 1998. They work.
For instance, after upgrading with the DVD, you have to be aware that
the DVD does not upgrade everything, because the DVD has limited space.
You still have to upgrade some (few, many, a lot) online after the
“offline” upgrade.
But as you don’t format anything with this method, all your things are
kept (I mean those outside of /home).
> I do not intend to do an online install or upgrade regardless of my
> final decision. My opinion is that it’s too risky and I’d rather go
> through a 5 hr FTP transaction and burn a 12.3 DVD.
I recommend doing a full backup before doing any kind of fresh install
or upgrade. If things go badly, you can restore.
I also recommend having an emergency system of some sort. At least have
installed the XFCE rescue image on an USB stick (openSUSE).
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
Robin:
Just to make sure I fully understand, you are saying I can do a DVD upgrade of my 12.2 system to 13.1 and it will most likely go well?
And this upgrade will presumably maintain the apps I’ve installed in /opt (financial software, password manager, google Earth - no problem if that is lost).
After this, do online update via YaST.
The emergency system I would use would be the live DVD from 12.2 that I have laying around somewhere. Thanks for the comment on XFCE on USB stick, I will look into that for future possibilities. My current backup solutions are less than ideal, I back up to a directory in my existing /home (please don’t yell at me :P). Maybe after Christmas I’ll have a USB device for backup.
rgds,
jon
On 2013-11-23 20:16, 6520302 wrote:
> Robin:
>
> Just to make sure I fully understand, you are saying I can do a DVD
> upgrade of my 12.2 system to 13.1 and it will most likely go well?
Yep.
But read the documentation first and be aware of the things you have to do.
And be aware that there is a percent of chance that things go wrong.
Usually just some few little things break. Sometimes big things. Few
times it is a total disaster.
For instance. Once I had a setup using a “/” partition and several
others like "/usr/ and “/opt”. One was not mounted during the upgrade,
so files got written instead to the main root, which overflowed and was
destroyed (partly updated only).
So, restore from backup and try again
> And this upgrade will presumably maintain the apps I’ve installed in
> /opt (financial software, password manager, google Earth - no problem if
> that is lost).
Yep.
There is no assurance that they still work, mind! It might be that the
new version has something that is not compatible. Your software might
expect certain libraries, for instance, that now are no more, or have
another version.
But it is much better than install fresh.
> After this, do online update via YaST.
The generic procedure after the offline upgrade is:
zypper up
zypper dup
zypper patch
with only the 4 mandatory repos enabled.
> The emergency system I would use would be the live DVD from 12.2 that I
> have laying around somewhere.
Huh, no, get the 13.1 XFCE CD, better in an USB stick.
If you have problems that require you to repair grub or to chroot the
main system, you need a rescue system with a compatible kernel and
libraries to your system.
> Thanks for the comment on XFCE on USB
> stick, I will look into that for future possibilities. My current
> backup solutions are less than ideal, I back up to a directory in my
> existing /home (please don’t yell at me :P). Maybe after Christmas I’ll
> have a USB device for backup.
No, I won’t yell. I yell at myself for not having it when disaster
hits… because sooner or later it hits. 
My preferred method is to do a ‘dd’ image onto a bigger disk of the
system, and an rsync copy of “/home”.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
Robin:
Thanks for all this. I’ll give it a go and keep my fingers crossed.
Rgds, Jon
Robin:
Following up, your comment that I can do an upgrade from 12.2 -> 13.1 (not a recommendation from the reading here), does indeed work. Of course, not totally without problems. My system has a radeon HD 7570 gpu and this caused me to have a fairly miserable experience. I believe that if I had a better supported gpu that it would have been an easy upgrade.
I’m lucky that there is a fglrx beta available at https://lizards.opensuse.org and once that was installed I have a much improved system.
So thank you for the info that prompted me to try the upgrade even though it was a big jump in versions. So far it seems to be working well for me. I should have checked on the requirement for the radeon prior to starting the upgrade but in the end all is well that ends well.
Rgds, Jon
On 2013-11-25 17:56, 6520302 wrote:
> Robin:
>
> Following up, your comment that I can do an upgrade from 12.2 -> 13.1
> (not a recommendation from the reading here), does indeed work. Of
> course, not totally without problems. My system has a radeon HD 7570
> gpu and this caused me to have a fairly miserable experience. I believe
> that if I had a better supported gpu that it would have been an easy
> upgrade.
Ah, it is true that when you need a proprietary driver for something as
important as video, it sucks. Very unfortunate. But hey, a fresh install
would probably also be a pain till you manage to install the driver.
I should add a paragraph in the wiki doc about this.
> So thank you for the info that prompted me to try the upgrade even
> though it was a big jump in versions. So far it seems to be working
> well for me. I should have checked on the requirement for the radeon
> prior to starting the upgrade but in the end all is well that ends well.
I’m glad it worked
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
6520302 wrote:
>
> I’m running v12.2. From reading it seems I need to choose install and
> keep data rather than upgrade.
> So I will select keep data, I presume that selection applies only for
> /home?
> I have backed up /etc for reference.
> My question concerns /opt and /usr/share
> Are they overwritten?
>
> Thanks, jon
>
>
Danger. Your human soul and memories do get overwritten when upgrading
from 12.3 to 13.1. LOL
Don’t forget to backup stuff. I backup my data on another machine even
though i retain my “home” partition across upgrades
–
GNOME 3.10.1
openSUSE 13.1 (Bottle) (x86_64) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.11.6-4-desktop
Good point, I didn’t consider that 
I’m in the process of reading “SDB: Configuring graphic cards” with the idea that maybe it will help me in the future.
Jon
Unfortunately, my memories get overwritten every day when I get out of bed rotfl!
I now need to document most things I do and often forget to even do that.
Yeah, backup, backup, backup. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been backing up /home to an external usb ntfs drive without fully realizing the folly of that. Of course, it would be worse if I was doing a full backup.
Tomorrow I go shopping for another external usb drive, it will be formatted ext4.
Jon
On 2013-11-26 06:06, 6520302 wrote:
>
> vazhavandan;2602012 Wrote:
>> 6520302 wrote:
>>
>> Danger. Your human soul and memories do get overwritten when upgrading
>> from 12.3 to 13.1. LOL
>>
>> Don’t forget to backup stuff. I backup my data on another machine even
>> though i retain my “home” partition across upgrades
I do a full backup when upgrading, or installing fresh on top.
> Yeah, backup, backup, backup. Unfortunately for me, I’ve been backing
> up /home to an external usb ntfs drive without fully realizing the folly
> of that. Of course, it would be worse if I was doing a full backup.
For data it is enough.
However, you can create a tar archive, or a compressed tar archive, and
store that under ntfs. Permissions and ownership attributes are kept
that way.
> Tomorrow I go shopping for another external usb drive, it will be
> formatted ext4.
I have a dedicated external disk for backups. Even more, it is bootable.
As it is a desktop, I plug it in a SATA tray accessible from the
outside, so that I can quickly swaps disks (hot).
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)
My mistake, the external drive is fat32. The problem I had with .tar was the max file size.
I still need to research your recommendation of a dd image.
The hot plugable SATA sounds nice but it is beyond my needs. I have a handful of old scsi’s laying around and hate to toss perfectly good hardware. I keep thinking I might put them in an external enclosure but technology is moving so fast that I guess this idea is way outdated by now.
jon
On 2013-11-26 18:26, 6520302 wrote:
> My mistake, the external drive is fat32. The problem I had with .tar
> was the max file size.
Oh.
> I still need to research your recommendation of a dd image.
dd if=/dev/sda of=sdaimage.img bs=100M
or
cp /dev/sda sdaimage.img
> The hot plugable SATA sounds nice but it is beyond my needs. I have a
> handful of old scsi’s laying around and hate to toss perfectly good
> hardware. I keep thinking I might put them in an external enclosure but
> technology is moving so fast that I guess this idea is way outdated by
> now.
Dunno about external scsi enclosures with usb or esata cable… maybe
expensive.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)