[newbie] Upgrade from Linux?

[pablito]

I was wondering whether there was some way to upgrade Mandrake Linux without
running the install program.  I managed to get Mandrake 6.0 installed but no
version after that, trying 7.0, 7.0-2, and now 7.1.  I tried using Kpackage
but I'd get messages that I needed some library installed first.