CentOS - Feb 2005 - Upgrading FC2 -> Centos4RC1 (possible, but messy)

This was my experience with upgrading, your mileage may vary especially 
if it's in kilometers.  This is what I had to do to get my system 
running again.

##############

In order to attempt this upgrade, I had to use "linux upgradeany", a 
mode not listed for the installer CDs.

My first problem was I could no longer boot the system after the 
upgrade.  My grub menu showed my old FC2 kernel, Fedora Core 
(2.6.10-1.14_FC2), but not the kernel for Centos.  Trying to boot this 
FC2 kernel it froze after "Enabling swap space:"

* Boot up the "linux rescue", chroot /mnt/sysimage
* used lynx to download kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.i686.rpm
* rpm -ivh kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.i686.rpm

warning: kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.i686.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 
4fe06303
error: failed to stat /dev/shm: No such file or directory
Preparing... 
##################################################
         package kernel-2.6.10-1.14_FC2 (which is newer than 
kernel-2.6.9-5.EL) is already installed

* rpm -ivh --old-package kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.i686.rpm

warning: kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.i686.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 
4fe06303
error: failed to stat /dev/shm: No such file or directory
Preparing... 
##################################################
error: %pre(kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.i686) scriptlet failed, exit status 255
error:   install: %pre scriptlet failed (2), skipping kernel-2.6.9-5.EL

* rpm2cpio kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.i686.rpm | cpio -i --make-directories
   * mv boot/* /boot/
   * mv lib/modules/* /lib/modules/
   * depmod -a
   * mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.6.9-5.EL 2.6.9-5.EL
   * edit /etc/grub.conf an add in this kernel

* rebooted into the Centos-4 system at this point
   just need to do some finishing work to get things started

* fedora-release-2-4.i386 wasn't upgraded to centos-release

* yum wouldn't run as the fedora release version was 2
   cp /etc/yum.conf /etc/yum.conf.old
   cp /etc/yum.conf.rpmnew /etc/yum.conf

   wget 
http://beta.centos.org/centos/4.0beta/os/i386/CentOS/RPMS/centos-release-4.0beta-5.i386.rpm

   rpm -e --nodeps fedora-release
   rpm -ivh centos-release-4.0beta-5.i386.rpm
   rpm --import /usr/share/rhn/RPM-GPG-KEY-centos4.0beta
   yum clean all
   rpm -e --nodeps $(rpm -qa | grep kernel | grep FC2)
   yum install kernel (or rpm -ivh kernel-2.6.9-5.EL.i686.rpm)
   yum update


-Mike

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 02:05:39 -0700, Michael Best <mbest at pendragon.org>
wrote:
> This was my experience with upgrading, your mileage may vary especially
> if it's in kilometers.  This is what I had to do to get my system
> running again.
> 
I'm constantly surprised how many people wish to 'upgrade'.

Historically I've been updating my Linux distro when Redhat still was
shipped in nappies.  I've learnt pretty early on the following:

1. Never trust an OS upgrader... it always is like a dog with diarrhea
running through your house.  :(
2. Keep seperated partitions...   /home /usr/local  and normally the
ones you wish to keep...  (I also backup the entire /etc directory)
3. Ensure you have working backups... well of at least the stuff you
MUST get back.
4. Choose to install fresh (not upgrade), and format the existing
partitions /, /usr, /tmp and /var....  whilst you probably wish to
keep /usr/local and /home.
5. Recover anything you need (such as /etc based files).


You'll be up and running much faster... without the mess.  ;)