Best Upgrade strategy for OpenSuse 10.0 to 11.1?

[aragorn2]

Hi, I have some old and outdated PC which was not used for a long time to
'reactivate' and use with OpenSuse 11.1. Currently it has OpenSuse 10.0 installed.

I'd like to know about a good upgrade strategy how to upgrade (most) easiest
and without breaking too much. Is the Opensuse 'Internet Installation Boot Image' enough for upgrading?

Since OpenSuse 11.1 is now released for some time, are there any experiences in doing such a major upgrade? Can anyone confirm that it works?

Thankful for hints and pointers!

[saivin]

11 to 11.1 may be ok but 10 to 11.1? You better download the 11.1 iso or purchase the cd/dvd and install.

you also mention that the pc is old and outdated! distros these days are becoming resource hungry. check system requirement info at opensuse.

[aragorn2]

The PC is only two years old and the hardware is good for working efficiently with recent OpenSuse.

I am now downloading the full 11.1 ISO, but before I perform the upgrade I am waiting for some feedback from those who did or at least tried such an upgrade 'leap'.

[saivin]

waiting for some feedback from those who did or at least tried such an upgrade 'leap'.

Ya I can understand Well, if you have time, patience and strong desire to learn by tinkering...why not?!

[gogalthorp]

Do not select the upgrade option. Such an upgrade may leave stuff behind which can cause problems. Instead do a new install, BUT at the partition scheme part of the install select manual and set the home partition not to be formated. This will preserve your personal data and settings. The root partition should be set to format. To much has changed from 10.0 to 11.1. If you were going from 11.0 to 11.1 then upgrade may be ok.

[aragorn2]

Ya I can understand Well, if you have time, patience and strong desire to learn by tinkering...why not?!

Well, I am trying to save some time, actually.

Basically I like 'tinkering', I also use Gentoo
But if it's not required, causes troubles and takes more time ... no.

Only IFF everything goes smoothly, but I just heard from somebody in another forum about the problems an upgrade from 10.2 to 11.1 caused.

So this was no time-saver, took more time/nerves to get it working properly.

Now my tendency is strongly in favour of a complete reinstall, but then I think I will install GentooHardened instead of OpenSuse.

[aragorn2]

Do not select the upgrade option. Such an upgrade may leave stuff behind which can cause problems. Instead do a new install, BUT at the partition scheme part of the install select manual and set the home partition not to be formated. This will preserve your personal data and settings. The root partition should be set to format. To much has changed from 10.0 to 11.1. If you were going from 11.0 to 11.1 then upgrade may be ok.

Just read your posting after I finished mine.

This upgrade type from 10.2 to 11.1 preserving /home only caused somebody in another forum quite some trouble.

Now I am even more convinced that an upgrade is not the best option.

[gogalthorp]

There are possible problems but a full install of root and saving home is the best policy. I do that always. Yes you do need to reinstall things that may not be in the base distro, but it also cleans out all the dross that collects over time and gives a clean install of the new OS. Most problems will arise in the desktop configurations with something in the new not 100% compatible with an old setting. Almost all of these can be addressed by deleting or renaming the .kde or .gnome directories in your home. And the advantage is that you preserve all your personal data such as emails documents movies mp3s etc. Of course if you don't need to preserve this info or if you have backed it up (always a good idea) then a complete install wiping all is the way to go.

[D-cat]

This is all assuming that you have /home on a separate partition. Otherwise, back it up first (not a bad idea anyway).

Having a system old enough to be running 10.0, I also want to make sure you have the RAM to upgrade to SuSE 11.. if you don't have at least 512 MB in there, I'd suggest baby steps, up to 10.3 (which is still supported for a little bit). Less than 256, you might not even get the SuSE 11 installer to load.

[aragorn2]

This is all assuming that you have /home on a separate partition. Otherwise, back it up first (not a bad idea anyway).

Having a system old enough to be running 10.0, I also want to make sure you have the RAM to upgrade to SuSE 11.. if you don't have at least 512 MB in there, I'd suggest baby steps, up to 10.3 (which is still supported for a little bit). Less than 256, you might not even get the SuSE 11 installer to load.

It has 1 GB RAM and I disable lots of unneeded services, so the amount of RAM is sufficient, '/home' is on separate partition.

I have decided to install GentooHardened on this PC. Once the initial compilation is done and X-Server exceptions are allowed in PaX, it runs fine.

And other than with major binary distributions, I only compile with the features I want, leaving less vulnerability surface.