I don't understand how Linux and the various distributions handle upgrades.
For example:
I have RedHat 6.0 installed and I decided to flesh it out / upgrade it with
Mandrake 6.5.
I didn't see anything in the documentation regarding upgrades versus full
installs so
I started using gnorpm to successively upgrade / install different
components.
One of the frequent warnings was missing libraries. When I tried to install
the requested
versions of the libraries I was warned that newer versions were already
loaded and
did I wish to risk making the system unstable be loading the older version.
When I
tried running the applications with the newer versions they objected to not
finding the
older versions.
So a few questions:
- Is there a README, FAQ, book which I should be reading? My initial
searches
have be unproductive.
- Does the Linux paradigm expect you to maintain old versions of each
library? If
so how do you upgrade programs to bug fixed versions of libraries? Could
someone
summarize the "Linux upgrade / update paradigm"? I have found it
relatively easy to
upgrade the kernel but adding new programs is being difficult due to
library versioning
problems.
- Is there Mandrake "upgrade" option? I felt nervous about following the
install
directions, with the hope that an upgrade option might be presented.
Bill Smith
Intel ASC Santa Clara
Phone: 408-765-4570 / Fax: 408-653-8511
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
