On Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 5:53 PM Yasha Karant <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> During the upgrade of a SL 7 non-current system to SL 7 (via yum update
> as root from the Internet), the campus network "glitched" and the system
> hung.  The 7.5 partially installed system panics; it has not recovered.
> The 7 non-current will boot but no X (no GUI), only a scrolling text
> terminal, presumably from which yum can be executed.

If you want to keep this beastie alive, I urge you to:

* Boot from a live USB or DVD image with networking enabled
* Mount the old partitions at /mnt/sysimage, with subpartitions
appropriately under that
* chroot to /mnt/sysimage
* Run "rpm --rebuilddb", because it is probably corrupt
* Get the list of installed packages with "rpm -qa --qf '%{name}.%{arch}\n'"
* For every package, use "yum upgrade $name" and "yum reinstall $name"
* * yum reinstall may require enabling the obsolete repositories
* One or more are likely to balk due to two distinct versions of the
same package.  Resolve that balking package manually, downloading the
current version and using "rpm -U --replacepkgs $name"

> I have downloaded Scientific-7.5-Install-Dual-Layer-DVD-x86_64.iso and
> then put this onto an USB flash "thumb" drive that I have confirmed is
> bootable and will start the installation steps.  I do not want to do a
> new install but rather an upgrade, not touching /home , /opt and the like.
>
> I have found old upstream vendor instructions for a previous upstream
> vendor major release of the enterprise (not enthusiast) system; please
> see below.  How are these to
> be modified for SL 7.5?  If I boot the Install ISO image (from the USB
> drive), is there a way to get to the old GUI upgrade option that seems
> no longer available?

It's nearly impossible to tell which components got messed up in a
mass upgrade. Start from a cleaned up upgrade process, as described
above.

> Please reply to [log in to unmask]  Any assistance would be appreciated.
>
> Yasha Karant