update Linux Redhat 7.3

[Cristian M.]

I have installed Linux RedHat 7.3 on a computer at work and I want to man an update to Redhat 9.
I have the 3 CD's with RedHat 9 but the computer does not have a CDROM. I can copy those CD's through FTP but how can I start the update process?

[Jerome Henry]

You can just update your packages, doing an (be root) :
rpm -Uvh ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/9/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS

The thing is that you'll just get the update for the packages you have, and not the new ones (and there are some in rh9.)
Second solution, make a boot disk, downloading bootnet.img from ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/9/en/os/i386/images
copy it to a diskette (dd if /'path'/bootnet.img of /dev/fd0 bs=1440),
then restart your machine booting on floppy, follow the instructions, you'll install from network.
Have a cofee.
Enjoy.
J

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

RH provides few more methods:

- you can install from local harddisk
- you can out your CD to other machine and use FTP/NFS/HTTP


see https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/s1-installmethod.html
for more

Vitaly

[Steven E. Protter]

Okay,

Don't do the install off Red Hat's site.

That will take forever, its quite crowded.

http://www.redhat.com/download/mirror.html

Find an FTP site that really cooks for you so the install doesn't take three days.

If you must do it via ftp.

Assuming you have enough disk space, simply copy the cd's to a folder

When I do it, I do this.

mkdir /home/update
mkdir /home/update/disk1
mkdir /home/update/disk2
mkdir /home/update/disk3

Then I do the install off disk.

Run bdf and make sure there is plenty of room in /usr for new fatter executables, /var for new enhanced logging and / for bigger more functional kernels.

SEP

[Umapathy S]

If at work, you can do this. I have done this before.

You need a floppy driver for this. Create a boot floppy as Jerome said.

Find another machine with some disk space to accomodate all the iso images. Put them on the nfs-share.

Boot your machine through the boot floppy and select install by nfs and follow through the instructions.

HTH
Umapathy

[Balaji N]

hi,

there is a huge difference between what is RH7.3 and RH9. I cant list the changes but will point you to a link which gives out some feature of RH9.

http://www.gurulabs.com/RedHatLinux9-review.html

the problem with upgrading is that there is a chance that you break some dependencies of prograns. also, while doing an upgrade, there is a chance that you miss out some features of the new version.

hence while moving to a major release, the best option is to take a databackup and then perform a fresh install and then restore your data.

the installation details are described clearly here.

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/

my 2paise.
cheers
-balaji

[Sergejs Svitnevs]

You cannot simply apply a few RPMS and change RH7.3 to RH9, it does not work that way.
You need to install the fresh OS in order to have RH9.
Please read the Installation Guide before starting:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/

Regards,
Sergejs

[Jarle Bjorgeengen]

If you are going to upgrade, use the "upgrade option in Anaconda" with the bootnet diskette , towards a ftp/nfs/http server. Or copy the cd's onto local disks via the network, and use an ordinary boot-disk image.

Otherwise backup your data, and do a cold install and migrate your config to the new os.

Rgds Jarle