> Have a try at rpm -F, and we'd love input on how you'd like to see it
> improved
I'd like to perform the upgrade on a running system, have it act
just as though I'd booted off the floppy (and not give me any complaints
about upgrading in the proper order--i.e., just like the floppy-boot) and
I'd like it to leave a log file of all actions and possible warning
messages in /tmp/upgrade-[version].log so I can see what happened.
I'd like it to give me the same graphical text-mode output as the
boot-floppy (i.e., something like you see when you run "setup", blue
background, red buttons, etc.) but I want to see it through a telnet
session. I should get the same lilo configuration prompts, etc. When the
upgrade is complete, I want a message that says:
---------------------------------------------------
Your upgrade to Mandrake 7.0 is complete. The next time you reboot, you
will be running on the new Linux kernel, 2.4.4ac-mdk.
You can reboot your system now, or continue running on the old kernel.
What would you like to do?
|Restart Now| |Restart Later|
---------------------------------------------------
Finally, if the O.S.-level upgrade has serious kernel-level
changes that REQUIRE a reboot (such as the kernel PPP interface has
changed again or the libc vendor has changed again) then I'd like to see
(at the beginning):
---------------------------------------------------
WARNING: Upgrading your system to Mandrake 7.0 requires rebooting
your computer! Make sure you have saved all your files and are ready to
reboot before performing this upgrade, because you will be forced to
restart if you continue!
|Continue with Upgrade| |Quit|
---------------------------------------------------
...and then at the end...
---------------------------------------------------
Your upgrade to Mandrake 7.0 is complete. The next time you reboot, you
will be running on the new Linux kernel, 2.4.4ac-mdk.
I'm afraid that the upgrade to Mandrake 7.0 requires you to reboot your
computer, because certain programs need features of the new kernel in
order to function properly.
|Restart Now|
---------------------------------------------------
When I upgraded a client to Redhat from 4.x to 5.x (can't remember
minor versions) the default sendmail configuration file changed to
disallow any non-enumerated hosts from sending mail through it.
Suddenly, everybody's email broke, and they're looking at me because they
know I broke it. A log file or warning message telling me where to look
would have saved a couple of hours of panic (I don't know very much about
sendmail configuration files).
Finally, all the prompts presented by this "upgrade" program
should have command-line defaults. I.e., if I have a beowulf cluster, I
should be able to run:
mandrake-sysupgrade ftp://ftp.foo.bar/pub/Mandrake \
--lilo=master_boot_record --Xconfig=use_old_config_file --reboot=automatic
...and then run this single command on all the computers.
Something like Redhat's KickStart, I guess (I've never used KickStart).
Does that sound reasonable? Should be easy to implement with
existing RPM commands, yes?
--Derek
