Thanks Mark for your comments as always.
I finally found mention in the SuSE reference manaul that with YaST:
"Updating a SuSE Linux system is not supported since this is the first
release." I did an install from scratch and have ipl'd the new version. Now
I need to get it to the same point I was on the old version and how to
better prepare for next time.
Also figure out all those things that are second nature on OS/390 such as
backup and recovery.
Anyway, thanks again for your help,
Craig
-----Original Message-----
From: Post, Mark K [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 10:47 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Upgrades for Newbies?
Craig,
It depends on where you're starting, and where you want to end up. You've
given that information, but I'll talk about the more general case for the
benefit of others who might have a different situation.
If you're starting from a 2.2.16 kernel, with the glibc that came with it
for example, and you want to get to the latest and greatest, I would do a
new install. Trying to figure out exactly what order is needed to put on
the new packages would just be too fraught with the potential for a
non-running system. Somewhere in the middle, the S/390 ELF binary magic
number got changed, for one thing. Messing that up, all by itself could
kill your system. There are other pitfalls as well, so just don't go there.
If you're ever in the situation where the starting and ending points are
based on the same compiler, glibc, etc., etc., then it can be easier to just
upgrade the various packages individually. If the RPM packager did their
job right, the rpms won't install any way other than in a correct order.
_Finding_ that order could be a gigantic pain if you have more than a
handful of packages to install. That's where things like the "apt-get for
RPM" come in very handy.
As I've said in other cases, if this all sounds very non-deterministic,
that's because it is. Over time, you'll get something of a "feel" for what
might be best for a given situation. (I don't claim that I'm there yet,
because I'm still too inexperienced with RPM.)
Mark Post
