Upgrade Information for Currently Installed Linux Systems in Software

Generating QR in Software Upgrade Information for Currently Installed Linux Systems

If you have a version of Linux already installed and you want to upgrade it you can either overwrite your current installation, starting new, or update the current one, keeping your current configuration settings. If you are installing a new system or just overwriting the old one, you can skip this section. If you already have installed a previous version of Red Hat Linux (kernel 2.0 and above), you may have personalized your system with different settings that you would like to keep. If you choose the Upgrade option, rather than Install, during the installation process, these settings will be kept. All your previous configuration files are saved in files with a .rpmsave extension. However, Upgrade only works for Red Hat versions 3.0.3 and up. For Red Hat versions older than 3.0.3, or for other installed Linux distributions, you should save your settings first. You may want to back up these settings anyway as a precaution. These settings are held in configuration files that you can save to a floppy disk and then use on your new system, in effect retaining your original configuration (if you use mcopy, be sure to use the -t option). You may want to preserve directories and files of data, such as Web pages used for a Web site. You may also want to save copies of software packages you have downloaded. For these and for large directories, using the following tar operation is best.

Make copies of the following configuration files and any other files you want to restore. You only need to copy the files you want to restore. Files /etc/X11/XF86Config /etc/lilo.conf /etc/hosts /etc/resolv.conf /etc/fstab /etc/passwd Description X Windows configuration file Boot manager configuration file IP addresses of connected systems Domain name server addresses File systems mounted on your system Names and passwords of all users on your system

Description Any home directories of users with their files on your system, where user is the username. (For a large number of files, use tar cfM/dev/fd0/home/user) Each home directory has its own .netscape subdirectory with Netscape configuration files such as your bookmark entries You may want to save any pages used for a Web site or files on an FTP site you are running. On Red Hat versions, these are located at /var//httpd/html and /var/ ftpd.

Once you have installed your system, you can mount the floppy disk and use the information to configure the newly installed versions for your applications. In many cases you may be able to copy the saved files from the floppy to your system, overwriting those initially set up. However, new versions of applications may include changes in the format of configuration files. If the formats have changed, copying old configuration files will not work. In these cases, though, the new software versions will usually include utilities for converting old configuration files to new versions. Be sure to check software documentation before you replace any configuration files. This is particularly true for Internet server configuration files. For example, to convert from inetd to xinetd configuration files, you use the inetdconvert program. If you want to restore the /etc/lilo.conf file from your previous system, you must also install it, using the following command:

To restore archives that you saved on multiple disks using the tar operation, place the first disk in the floppy drive and use the following command:

If you are using an entire hard drive for your Linux system or if you are upgrading a currently installed Linux system and you want to use the same partitions, you can skip this section and go on to installing Linux. If, however, your Linux system is going to share a hard drive with your Windows or DOS system, you need to organize your hard drive so that part of it is used for DOS and the remaining part is free for Linux installation. How you go about this process depends on the current state of your hard disk. If you have a new hard disk and you are going to install both Windows and Linux on it, you need to be sure to install Windows on only part of the hard drive, leaving the rest free for Linux. This means specifying a size smaller than the entire hard disk for your Windows partition that you set up during the Windows install procedure. You could also use fdisk to create partitions manually for Windows that will take up only a part of the hard disk. If you want to install Linux on a hard disk that already has Windows installed on its entire area, however, you need to resize your primary or extended partition, leaving part of the disk free for Linux. The objective in each situation is to free space for Linux. When you install Linux, you will then partition and format that free space for use by Linux.

Several different options exist for partitioning your hard drive, depending on whether it already contains data you need to preserve. A commercial partitioning software such as Partition Magic and GNU Partd (http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/) can help you do this easily and safely. Red Hat also has an option whereby Linux can be installed on a current Windows partition, requiring no partitioning. In all cases you need to make sure that your hard drive has the available free space for installing your Linux system. A hard disk is organized into partitions. The partitions are further formatted to the specifications of a given operating system. When you installed Windows, you first needed to create a primary partition for it on your hard disk. If you have only one disk on your hard drive, then you only have a primary partition. To add more partitions, you create an extended partition and then, within that, logical partitions. For example, if you have C, D, and E disks on your hard drive, your C disk is your primary partition and the D and E disks are logical partitions set up within your extended partition. You then used the DOS format operation to format each partition into a Windows disk, each identified by a letter. For example, you may have divided your disk into two partitions, one formatted as the C disk and the other as the D disk. Alternatively, you may have divided your hard disk into just one partition and formatted it as the C disk. To share your hard drive with Linux, you need to free some space by either deleting some of those partitions or reducing their size. First, decide how much space you need for your Linux system. You probably need a minimum of 3GB, though more is recommended. As stated earlier, the basic set of Linux software packages takes up 1GB, whereas the entire set of software packages, including all their source code files, take several GBs. In addition, you need space for a Linux swap partition used to implement virtual memory-the same size as your RAM is recommended, though you can get by with as little as 64 megs. Once you determine the space you need for your Linux system, you can then set about freeing that space on your hard drive. To see what options are best for you, you should first determine what your partitions are and their sizes. You can do this with the fdisk utility. To start this utility, type fdisk at the DOS prompt, and press ENTER.