BananaPower
24-09-2003, 12:33
How to upgrade to Mandrake Linux 9.2 without re-installing
Since a new Mandrake release should be out any time now, I decided to see how easy it is to upgrade -- without re-installation -- a vanilla Mandrake 9.1 release to version 9.2 (or more precisely, to the current "Cooker" version). At the time of writing, Mandrake Cooker is probably very close to what Mandrake 9.2 will look like, sans some last minute bug fixes. I followed these two documents to help me with the upgrade: Cooker HOWTO and How to upgrade Mandrake easily with only one reboot, but to sum it all up: after updating the urpmi source to point to the nearest mirror containing the "cooker" directory, only three commands were needed to upgrade the entire distribution:
urpmi.update -a
urpmi --auto-select --no-verify-rpm --auto
urpmi kernel
The process took several hours, but it did eventually complete without a hitch. The upgrade process with urpmi was a surprisingly positive experience, similar to upgrading Debian. Upon reboot, I found myself in a brand new Mandrake Linux 9.2 (almost final). As soon as the final version is released, I will simply update my urpmi sources to point to the 9.2 directory (instead of the "cooker" directory) and run the above three commands again. This will bring my Mandrake system up to 9.2 final, without going through the re-install process with a new set of ISO images. It seems that Mandrake developers have done an excellent job with their urpmi utility and the hard work of splitting the binary packages into core packages and libraries has paid off.
Since a new Mandrake release should be out any time now, I decided to see how easy it is to upgrade -- without re-installation -- a vanilla Mandrake 9.1 release to version 9.2 (or more precisely, to the current "Cooker" version). At the time of writing, Mandrake Cooker is probably very close to what Mandrake 9.2 will look like, sans some last minute bug fixes. I followed these two documents to help me with the upgrade: Cooker HOWTO and How to upgrade Mandrake easily with only one reboot, but to sum it all up: after updating the urpmi source to point to the nearest mirror containing the "cooker" directory, only three commands were needed to upgrade the entire distribution:
urpmi.update -a
urpmi --auto-select --no-verify-rpm --auto
urpmi kernel
The process took several hours, but it did eventually complete without a hitch. The upgrade process with urpmi was a surprisingly positive experience, similar to upgrading Debian. Upon reboot, I found myself in a brand new Mandrake Linux 9.2 (almost final). As soon as the final version is released, I will simply update my urpmi sources to point to the 9.2 directory (instead of the "cooker" directory) and run the above three commands again. This will bring my Mandrake system up to 9.2 final, without going through the re-install process with a new set of ISO images. It seems that Mandrake developers have done an excellent job with their urpmi utility and the hard work of splitting the binary packages into core packages and libraries has paid off.