Paul G. Allen wrote:
I can't find my FC7 DVD (probably because I had borrowed it). I do not
have a DVD writer in a working computer, but I do have a CD writer. So
far I have looked on several Fedora mirrors, but have only found ISO's
for DVDs.
My laptop is FUBAR until I can get my hands on FC7 or FC8 install CDs,
DVD, or CD iso images that I can burn.
I was finally able to get FC8 installed without losing any of my
important data.
For whatever reason, some of the partitions kept causing problems. I
knew I'd have the same problem if I got a complete DVD of FC7 or FC8, so
I worked through it with the FC8 LiveCD I already had.
Since I had /usr and /usr/local each on a partition of their own with
30GB each, I copied all important data (/home, apps in /opt, /etc so I
had reference to old config files, and some other misc. stuff) to
/usr/local. I then used the FC8 LiveCD and selected the custom file
system setting. I re-formatted all Linux partitions EXCEPT /usr/local. I
used the /usr partition for both /usr and /usr/local (leaving the
original /usr/local unmounted and unchanged) since 30GB is more than
enough space for both.
The install went fine with no errors. I rebooted the system, and
re-mounted the old /usr/local partition as /usr/local (the new
/usr/local had no data installed by the LiveCD). I copied my old
/etc/fstab over the new one, made necessary changes since FC8 changed
some partition labels, and rebooted.
The system came up fine, so I then spent many hours installing missing
packages (the LiveCD install is very minimal) and updating the ones that
were present. I then restored my /home/pgallen data from the backup,
which restored my mail and Firefox settings (among other things) so now
my e-mail is working again. There's still a few apps to restore, but for
the most part everything is working.
This is probably the fifth upgrade in a row that has failed. When I
tried to upgrade from FC3 to FC4, it failed and I had to mess with it to
get a working system. The same with FC4-FC5, FC5-FC6, FC6-FC7, and now
FC7-FC8 (OK, the FC7 install was partially broken, so maybe this one
doesn't count). In any case, I'd think that they would make sure that
upgrades from a previous version would work much better. I'd also think
there would be an obvious option in the installer to upgrade while
preserving existing partitions and data. If the Linux community wants to
promote Linux to more end users, then these are the little things that
need to be easy and flawless.
PGA
--
Paul G. Allen, BSIT/SE
Owner, Sr. Engineer
Random Logic Consulting Services
www.randomlogic.com
--
[email protected]
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