On Sat, 2005-07-30 at 11:49 -0400, Lamar Owen wrote:
> On Saturday 30 July 2005 10:43, Todd Cary wrote:
> > I have FC 3 running on my "play/test" box. Is CentOS (RHEL) a level above?
> >
> > Can I do an Upgrade or should I do an Install?
>
> CentOS 4 -> RHEL 4. Fedora Core 3 is slightly further along on some packages
> than RHEL4; the RHEL4 codebase was frozen before the FC3 codebase was, but
> for the most part they are comparable.
>
> Except when you go to do an upgrade. I've not seen a direct comparison of
> package versions (primarily because I went from FC2 to CentOS 4 instead of
> going through FC3) but I'm pretty sure an upgrade from FC3 to CentOS 4 is
> going to leave some FC3 packages in place.
Yes, particularly if you have 3rd party packages installed (Fedora
Extras, Livna, Dag, FreshRPMS, Dries, NewRPMS, ...).
> Since then I've not followed Fedora development (simply not enough time), so
> have stuck with CentOS 4, which has done PARI an excellent job thus far.
>
> I would recommend an Install rather than an upgrade, although you can try an
> upgrade using the upgradeany command line parameter when you boot the CentOS
> install media (sorry, I don't remember the exact syntax, it might be 'linux
> upgradeany').
That's correct syntax. A fresh install is highly recommended, but
should be OK use the same /home if it is on a separate partition. A
full backup is highly recommended in any case if there's anything you
want to preserve. I like to install on a new set of partitions and
leave the old system for fall-back with dual-boot, and mining for
settings/configuration/packages in the old /etc, /var, /usr/local, etc.
If you do decide to play with an upgrade, a dual-bootable "clone" on
separate partitions will leave your options open. Can fall back to the
FC3 install, or blow away the clone and do a fresh install in the same
space if things are too big a mess.
After an upgrade
#rpm -qa --last > RPMS_by_Install_Time.txt
will help find old packages. Anything in the output file after the
install date/time is old stuff that you should consider upgrading,
deleting, or otherwise fixing.
Phil
