Re: Question about upgrading to the newest RH beta.

["Robert G. (Doc) Savage" <dsavage@peaknet.net>]

Bonnie,

You can download the ISO images for most Red Hat production and beta
releases for free from ftp.silug.org.

The short answer to your "Can I upgrade?" question is "Yes". But a
longer, detailed answer is "Not in all cases." It's very important to
read the RELEASE-NOTES before doing anything.

The upgrade option is something that Red Hat likes to support. With the
increasing complexity and size of Linux and the Red Hat Linux
distribution (4.5G in 1500 packages), upgrades are getting harder for
them to support. You may have read in a recent "Under The Brim" that Red
Hat is "sundowning" their support for many prior releases.

You will have the following full install and upgrade options from recent
Red Hat releases to the upcoming 8.1 release expected next month:

	          full install-->  8.1  guaranteed
	8.0(full)    --upgrade-->  8.1  guaranteed
	8.0(upgrade) --upgrade-->  8.1	probable, but not guaranteed
	7.3(full)    --upgrade-->  8.1  guaranteed
	7.3(upgrade) --upgrade-->  8.1  probable, but not guaranteed
	7.2          --upgrade-->  8.1  swap file problems

Phoebe beta installation support looks like this:

             full install--> 8.0.92 expected
	8.0     --upgrade--> 8.0.92 expected
	     full install--> 8.0.93 expected
	8.0     --upgrade--> 8.0.93 expected
	8.0.92  --upgrade--> 8.0.93 not recommended
	     full install--> 8.0.94 expected
	8.0     --upgrade--> 8.0.94 expected
	8.0.92  --upgrade--> 8.0.94 not recommended
	8.0.93  --upgrade--> 8.0.94 not recommended

	8.0.92  --upgrade--> 8.1 not recommended
	8.0.93  --upgrade--> 8.1 not recommended
	8.0.94  --upgrade--> 8.1 not recommended
	
"Not recommended" indicates Red Hat can't and won't devote its limited
testing resources to support the end result. When you start chaining
combinations together, the likelihood of trouble increases rapidly. This
is not to say a "not recommended" or "not guaranteed" upgrade won't
work. It might.

Red Hat frequently experiments with new software packages in their
betas. Not all of them make it to the final production release. Large
scale beta testing sometimes reveals subtle problems with new software
that would make a production release unstable. Red Hat might have to
remove some packages included in the 8.0.94 beta, or replace them with
earlier versions, to make the final 8.1 production release stable.

Better to start with a clean slate.

Hope this helps.

--Doc Savage
  Fairview Heights, IL

On Fri, 2003-03-21 at 15:12, Bonnie Saunders wrote:
> Hey, gang.  It's been a long trek.  RH 8.1(beta) is
> hanging in there with dignity on the HP. Thanks Steve!
> 
> 
> It's taken me quite some time to figure out how to get
> sbc.yahoo! DSL working, but once I did. Speed is good.
> 
> I have successfully (sort of) done an rmp install of
> videolan, so I know at least in part the download
> install process for applications other than the OS.
> 
> So, here' my question.  If I want to upgrade to the
> latest beta software for RH8.1, exactly how do I do
> that? Will I have to install everything, or can I
> download and update specific packages? My RH network
> membership is the free one, so the newer iso isn't
> available to me yet.
> 
> Don't snicker too loudly, remember, I'm still
> learning.  
> 
> Bonnie
> 
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