Hello,
> I wonder if it is possible to update a partition containing factory (10.3
> beta, actually) while the running system (different system version)
> resides in another partition.
>
> control
> running ------> updating (stopped)
>
> standard 10.3 factory 11α
>
> The idea is to be able to continue doing things elsewhere while the
> lengthy download takes place.
>
> A posibility would be vmware, I guess.
It is possible with a simple chroot(1). I run SLED10-SP1 daily, but have
a separated partition with openSUSE-Factory, for development purposes.
Assuming that the openSUSE installation is on /dev/sda2, you can use
the following script (you'll probably have to tweak it to fit your environment):
Regards,
Leonardo
#!/bin/bash
if ! grep -q /dev/sda2 /proc/mounts; then
mount /dev/sda2 /opensuse
fi
for part in proc sys dev; do
if ! grep -q /opensuse/$part /proc/mounts; then
mount --bind /$part /opensuse/$part
fi
done
cp -f /etc/resolv.conf /opensuse/etc/resolv.conf
chroot /opensuse
umount /opensuse/proc
umount /opensuse/sys
umount /opensuse/dev
umount /opensuse
