[vox-tech] upgrading Mandrake packages only

[Ken Bloom]

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On Tue, Jan 13, 2004 at 12:44:00PM -0500, Aaron A. King wrote:
> Hi all,
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> I'm running Mandrake 9.1 on a few computers.  Being security-minded, I tr=
y to=20
> keep up with software security updates conscientiously.  This is fairly e=
asy=20
> using Mandrake's RPM-based update tools (urpmi and gurmpi). =20
>=20
> The problem is, Mandrake has already released 9.2 and will eventually sto=
p=20
> updating the 9.1 mirrors.  In the past, when this has happened, I have do=
ne a=20
> clean install.  This is inevitably a very painful process.  It can take u=
p to=20
> a week of tinkering before I get all my machines working again according =
to=20
> my preferences.  Trying to upgrade from the ISOs usually doesn't work wel=
l,=20
> in my experience.
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> So I'm considering trying to update packages only.  It seems I can fairly=
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> easily tell urpmi to look at the 9.2 mirror instead of the 9.1.  Presumab=
ly,=20
> I would then be able to upgrade all individual RPM packages and keep up w=
ith=20
> updates.
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> Of course, anything associated with the kernel will not work this way, bu=
t I=20
> already compile custom kernels from source, so I don't see this as a big=
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> problem.  Probably I'll have to be very very careful when it comes to cor=
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> packages like glibc.
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> Has anyone tried this?  Will it work?  What are the foreseeable problems?=
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> Aside from switching entirely to Debian, what are the options available t=
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> someone who has tired already of the tedious process of doing clean insta=
lls=20
> to keep up with updates?
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> Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom you can share.

Once upon a time I tried this (and it worked) but you're not going to
learn anything from my experience because I was upgrading from the
last release candiate of 8.2 to 8.2 final (or between release
candidates or something like that) so I only had to download a few
packages.

The devil is going to be if the dependancies weren't designed for
upgrading between versions. Debian makes a concious effort to design
its dependancies for upgrading between releases, I don't know whether
RPM distros can do that at all, or whether Mandrake does that
specifically. Other issues might include updating configuration files
to be compatible with new versions of the software.

What have been your problems upgrading from ISOs? They may be
indicative of whether a urpmi upgrade will succeed or fail based on
dependancies.

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