Hi

I just finished putting Redhat 8.0 on my laptop (Im completely new to Linux) and a week or so afterwards Redhat 9.0 came out. So I was wondering what the best way to put Redhat 9.0 on is? To upgrade or to completely get rid of Redhat 8.0 and clean install (this is a viable option bc I have no real programs or documents or settings I need to save).

Also another problem Im having is that when I put the CD in and start the computer, it will boot off the CD and go into the install program. I use the graphical setup but when I say that the install files are located on the CD, the install program can't find my CDROM drive. Any help on this would be appreciated. I'm trying to install onto a DELL Inspiron 8200 Laptop.

Thanks !

I have a dell Inspiron 3800 and red hat linux 7.1 work fine.But i red hat 8 it will not find my monitor on my del laptop.Dell is very good support with linux.

Yes gendreau,

I upgraded RH8 to RH9 on my laptop using the upgrade option during install. It took care of everything... eg packages and kernel etc.

One thing to note however, any modules you have may need to reinstalled. eg I have re-run my nvidia installer for video card, got the latest driver for my internal modem and got the right version for ntfs support for the newer kernel. Other than that it worked fine!
Dell Laptop, 384Mb, 30Gb, P 1.8Ghz, Dual boot with XP.

I guess my real question is how to do it... if I load the CD once loged in, in X, it goes into a screen that says
install packages from "Red Hat Linux 9"

then I click forward and it says Checking System Status, and then after that completes the install exits without installing any packages.

If I boot from the CD, it says that it cannot find my CDROM drive and so I can't upgrade then either.

Could it be a problem with my CDs?

You need to somehow boot from the CDs to "upgrade". Any luck in the bios about the boot order or is just those CDs?

Do you plan on using wine(an emulator to run windows programs in linux)??? If you do, stick with redhat 8. There are some issues with wine and the latest releases of linux distros which keep wine from functioning. Otherwise, if your not going to use wine, I've always had the belief that upgrades are evil. I won't upgrade windows, and I won't upgrade linux. I might be wrong on the linux side, but in my windows experience you always have leftover pieces from the old operating system, that *might* cause issues in the future, and in windows usually do. For this reason, I have never been a fan to upgrading anything. I personally would do a fresh install... chances are if you've only had it installed for a week, backing up your files won't be too much of a problem.

Zak