.rpm files
 

by running
I see that I have about 800 .rpm files from fc12
for example /var/cache/yum/i386/12/updates/packages/zbar-0.10-1.fc12.i686.rpm


4 from fc14 (all openjdk)
eg
/var/cache/yum/i386/14/updates/packages/java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin-1.6.0.0-52.1.9.7.fc14.i686.rpm

6 from fc16 (5 from nvidia, 1 from /lm_sensors-libs-3.3.2-4.fc16.i686

4 from fc17 - all nvidia -
eg
/usr/src/akmods/nvidia-kmod-304.64-1.fc17.src.rpm
/var/cache/akmods/nvidia/kmod-nvidia-3.6.10-2.fc17.i686-304.64-1.fc17.i686.rpm

Is there any reason I should keep these?

Once you have the rpms installed, do:

to clean up the downloads. Not sure why yum doesn't do this by default. Nothing bad will happen.

I tried it with this result

How about 'yum list obsoletes'?

i tried it
but yum only sees 3 installed from fc12 and note that all 3 are i686 whereas all the fc12 stuff that is on my disk is in directory i386. var/cache/yum has 2 sub-directories "i386" and "installed". Note that the 3 seen by yum are not i386

Back to the original question, I don't know if that was clear, but /var/cache/yum/ contents themselves may not represent the actual version of a package. Finding "/var/cache/yum/i386/14/updates/packages/java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin-1.6.0.0-52.1.9.7.fc14.i686.rpm" doesn't mean you run java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin-1.6.0.0-52.1.9.7. (And let's hope not because that package was released in 2011 and OpenJDK6 was set to be obsoleted end 2012. IIRC it's now the "icedtea-web" package which for some odd reason includes a plugin with, yes, the old "java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin" name?..). Deleting /var/cache/yum/ subdirectories will result in them being re-created when Yum runs again. But the packages you listed imply you've been able to upgrade the machine from F12 on. While commendable there have been some point-of-no-return releases where the Fedora Wiki indicated you should not upgrade older releases but install it. IMO that is the core problem. While I have had good results in the past upgrading older Fedora releases I know it's a complete pain to find your work being undone by newer releases by obsoleting software, configuration locations or using different formats. A fellow LQ member explained how he mitigated that by running two partitions for Fedora: one with his "current" release, one with the new one and migrating settings afterwards. I have to move one machine from F16 to F17 RSN and I''ll be using that approach. Maybe it could work for you too.

Hi unSpawn

Thanks for the suggestion - preupgrade has worked pretty well for me. There were 2 problems.
(1) F12 defaults gave me a too small boot partition and LVM partition for the rest of the disk. This was incompatible with subsequent releases - resulting in some exercising of the *nix tools to do the job.
(2) Since f15 various things are done by daemons and services - done differently than before - I've found them by trial and error. I think I've found a solution - loaded a fresh f17 onto my old laptop - from a live CD. Now I can compare the daemons and services on that fresh system with my working system. e.g. I had a Iscsi service running - newer asked for it - probably an uninitialized bit in a bit map somewhere. Also at startup I sometimes get a message about ICE.

Thanks for all your help

Dick

Good choice.


Try or better: remove the packages. Wrt ICE probably best create a new thread and check (post contents of) your ~/.xsession-error*, /var/log/Xorg* and /var/log/*dm/* log files.

I disabled iscsi and removed packages and that took care of that particular issue. Thanks.

The ICE thing is sporadic.

It is not clear to me exactly what you are recommending in your last sentence. I believe that if I issue any command at the command line the shell forks and creates a new thread. e.g. sudo nautilus -Is that what you are referring to ?

Sorry if that was unclear. This threads main issue was solved and the thread was marked solved. So exposure-wise it would be best to create a new thread on LQ.

ok - will do

Dick