Hello

I have to upgrade my FC6 box to FC10 or any other latest stable Fedora version since there are no updates available for FC6. My exisintg box is running a web server (apache, php, mysql), squid/squidguard with ACLs defind, and an LDAP Address book. Also I have some users created in the machine for checking various functionalities.

My questions are:

1. Will I be able to upgrade my machine without affecting the existing installed/configured applications?
2. Will the upgrade affect the existing users - do i need to recreate them after the upgrade?

Any help would be higly apperciated.

Thanks & Regards,

Jijo V

Wow, from FC6 to F10, that's a big step.

First of all: The procedure for all distros I have so far worked with is going one release at a time.
For you this would mean:

1. FC6 to F7
2. F7 to F8
3. F8 to F9
4. F9 to F10
5. possibly F10 to F11

That's 4 (or 5 if you go to the new F11) steps which each take quite a while and require you to download lots of data.

I think you might actually be quicker backing up all the important stuff and doing a clean install of F10/11 and then restoring your config.

Thanks for your reply...

So I need to go through a 5-step long long process to achieve what I need .
Then I will definitely go for the clean install, since I cannot afford a downtime like that.

Once again thanks for your time, and reply


Best Regards,

Jijo

You're welcome.
Of course you could try upgrading directly from FC6 to F11, but I think this would be quite a nightmare. I've never tried it any other way than recommended, which is the step by step upgrade. On the other hand I was never in the situation that I needed to skip any release as I always upgrade my boxes once a new Fedora is available.

Just for giggles I might actually try this. I think I should have a FC6-DVD somewhere. I could install it in a VM and then force it to upgrade to F11 by replacing the packages fedora-release and fedora-release-notes and see what devils this unleashes...
I wouldn't recommend it though, I'm actually pretty sure this will fail, although I wouldn't be able to give reasons for why I believe so.

IMO it is a good idea to always do a complete reformat and reinstall, rather than an upgrade.

This might have changed recently , but I've read way too many posts about guys who had an "upgrade" go awry and eventually had them reinstalling anyway. So rather do it in the first place, than be forced into it after several hours of trying to get an upgrade to work...!

Thank you guys for your replies. I hv started taking backups for a fresh install...

Yes, in general it is better, but for the lazy there is the option to upgrade. ;-) For example upgrading from F10 to F11 doesn't automatically switch you over to ext4, which is default in F11, you have to do this manually if you want it.

I had my upgrade from F8 to F9 go bad due to a bad power-cable. Lost connection mid-upgrade and the system was trash. Had to re-install the whole shit. Not Fedora's fault though. My upgrades from F9 to F10 and just last weekend from F10 to F11 worked perfectly fine though.