I'm finally getting around to updating my Linux partition after some time of letting it sit idle. I've gotten all of the RHN updates installed except a few I didn't need - and RPM itself, which apparently needs a library I don't have. I shurg and move on, figuring I'd come back to it later.
I'm then went looking to upgrade some of my 'non-critical' apps when I notice that, according to GnoRPM, some of the 'updated' programs are *not* the latest releases... what I got from RHN was the '7.1 upgrade', which, it seems, is not the same as a full version of 7.3 . I checked the kernel, and yes, that too is somewhat dated. While it's just a guess, I think it may have been part of why I couldn't update RPM, as well. Curious.
So now I'm looking to do as close to a full upgrade to 7.3 as I can, preferably using the individual RPMs rather than having to download the whole 7.3 distribution and burning it to disk. This is complicated by the facts that a) I have no CDR or tape on this machine, and thus cannot reasonably back it up; b) I have not to date tried compiling a kernel (I've got a separate machine I intend to use to experiment with once I've got it set up, but haven't done so yet); and c) due to various reasons, I no longer have a cablemodem connection, and will need to either borrow some time on a friend's PC or else use my 56.6k and wait and wait and wait.
Red Hat's upgrade docs, at least the current ones, assume you have a CD, and don't cover how to do it without one, AFIACT.
So, is there anything I should specifically know about it (aside form 'DeadRat sux') before going ahead? Any advice on how to do it, any warnings to pass on to me, etc.?
Also, I see that RH now supports ext3fs, but not ReiserFS. I still have an unformatted partition on my 13G disk, about 6G in size, which I've been meaning to put ReiserFS on but never got around to finding out how to. Any advice on which is a better choice, and how to install Rieser if I decide to?
TIA. |
