Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 27, 2006 at 10:03:52AM -0800, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
>> So, the question:  If you had to pick a current distro that is closest
>> to what SL5 will eventually be, would you start with SL4.2 or with
>> Fedora Core 6?  
> 
> On Tue, Jan 09, 2007 at 08:18:14AM +0000, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> ...
>> I also discovered that RHEL5 beta 2 is available (!) at:
>>
>>   ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/RHEL5-Beta2/
>>
>> I made some CDs, and did an install on a spare drive, and RHEL5b2
>> more or less works.  The gnome logout process does not have a checkbox
>> for "Save Current Setup", but I've found no other annoyances so far.
>>
>> So, new plan.  I will duplicate the SL4.4 drive onto the spare drive,
>> then try an RHEL5 upgrade on that drive and see what breaks.  If that
>> works, I may continue my upgrade/rebuild work on that drive.  
> 
> And here I ran into the next bottleneck - perhaps due to the way
> anaconda works.  When I try to upgrade from SL4.4 to RHEL5 beta 2,
> the installer does not recognize the older version of Linux and
> wants to do a clean install with a repartition.  One can "custom"
> past the repartition and reformat, but it still wants to select
> new packages and seems to ignore what's there.  I did not commit
> to the install - perhaps it mentions upgrade in the next page, but
> that would be at the point that the install process normally starts
> installing new RPMs.  
> 
> So, here's the NEW question:  is it possible to upgrade SL5 over the
> top of RHEL5, or vice versa?  
I have no idea, considering neither is out, I really don't feel that's a 
fair question to ask.

To be honest, we haven't even tried RHEL4 to SL4, although I'm sure some 
people have.  In theory, you really should just need to install yum and 
yum-conf, do a yum upgrade, and it should do most the work.  It won't 
uninstall all of redhat's rpms and re-install ours.  But it should 
convert the basic things like /etc/redhat-release, and things like that.

> Will it be possible to upgrade SL5 over the top of SL4?

Yes, it should be.
Right now I really really really wouldn't suggest it.  Not only have no 
bugs been worked out, it hasn't even been looked at.  Since names change 
and packages come and go before a release (I'm talking RHEL 5), it's not 
really worth our time to iron out any bugs except the installer seeing SL4.
Just so you know, the installer does see S.L. 4 and gives you the option 
of upgrading if you wish.

> Am I running into some bizarre behavior wired into
> beta versions in general or RHEL5 beta 2 in particular, that I won't
> see with a future SL4.4 -> SL5 upgrade?

Yes.
Because names change alot from alpha to beta to final release, you could 
do an upgrade, and have some package orphaned, not getting and update, 
because it was a different name in the alpha or beta.

Troy

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Troy Dawson  [log in to unmask]  (630)840-6468
Fermilab  ComputingDivision/CSS  CSI Group
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