Christopher Sawtell wrote:
On Thursday 01 February 2007, Kale Worsley wrote:
Hey,
I have another newbie question, Do 'major' distros have an update mechanism
like Windows Update? For example, I have some Ubuntu 6.06 LTS LiveCD's, If
I install Ubuntu on my computer, will I be able to automatically update to
version 6.10 without having to reinstall and/or download the new iso?
The answer to that one is a simple "Yes".
look for some doco for the command apt-get.
http://www.die.net/doc/linux/man/man8/apt-get.8.html
if the command man apt-get doesn't work locally.
I have just completed updating my Ubuntu 6.06 to 6.10 successfully, this
page has a nice over view of the process.
http://www.debianadmin.com/upgrade-ubuntu-606-dapper-drake-to-ubuntu-10-edgy-eft.html
I used the GUI method started by running the command gksu
"update-manager -c" The upgrade downloaded about 750Mb from the
internet approx 1525 packages for my update to 6.10. The update
process ran for around 1 hour, about half of that time for download and
the other half for installing the packages. There were only about 4
popups that needed my attention during the update, these were self
explanatory. My install of 6.06 had been running for around 6 months and
has had several customizations over that time. After the update I was
surprised that my custom settings were unaffected and functioning
exactly as before. I had installed the nvidia video drivers and
configured for an expanded desktop on the TV out. I had also spent time
customizing firefox 1.5 with flash, java and other plugins for playing
video, these were all seamlessly transfered to firefox 2.0 and continue
to work as before.
I have had no other side affects from the update to 6.10 and the whole
process was very smooth for me.
Simon Knight
CS
