I'm running Slack 10.0 alternating between kernels 2.6.9 and 2.6.7 (trying to isolate a mouse problem). I'd now like to go with Current, but I don't know the safest way to go about it. Can someone advise, please? Thanks.

The safest way would be to print out the changelog for current. Then download all of the packages listed. Then start upgradepkg, removepkg, installpkg as necessary per the changelog. You can put all the newly downloaded packages in one directory then issue upgradepkg --install-new as a short cut. Then you will only have to removepkg. Then there were some config changes you need to do for X that are listed in the changelogs.

Thanks, ringwraith, I'll give it a shot this weekend.

(You've obviously reformed since that whole business with the hobbits and all. Glad of it.)

I would go with ringwraith's suggestion, but I would like to add that there is no reason to upgrade a package unless the functionality it improves on/adds is something that you need, or another program depends on.

So when you are going through the changelog, ask yourself if the upgrade would have any benefit to you. For instance, if a new version of a program adds a feature you are not going to use, why upgrade?

The universal rule is "If it isn't broken, don't fix it."

Is that *really* how you guys feel? I thought it was, "Fix it until it breaks."

Your advice makes sense, of course, but I do like the idea of everything being, well, current.

It's up to you, and on a personal desktop computer, you can probably get away with taking a risk on installing possibly unstable packages.

But as I do most of my Linux work on servers with many clients depending on them, I don't take any unnecessary risks.

Yeah, that's the difference. If my home machine chokes for a while, I don't (usually) lose anything but time. Plus, what I learn in getting things working again is usually worth it. But if you support machines that other people are dependent on, I can see why you wouldn't tinker as much (must be tempting, though).

unless it's because of a security flaw, with some packages it is HIGHLY RECOMENDED that you do an update as the package you have installed may have a bug that can be exploited but is not present in the current released version of the package. Just depends, this is where security listing come into play.

If you are just going to do security though, do the 10.0 (or whatever version you use) packages. The packages in current will be built against other packages in current. That is why just upgrading piecemeal from current can sometimes break things.

Hey, ringwraith, I moved to current using the method you outlined. Took a while, but it went just fine (or so far, at least). Nothing seems broken yet. I don't know how often in the future I'll try to install four months of changes in one evening, but it wasn't bad. Then again, I'm still in the honeymoon phase with Slackware, so I have higher tedium-tolerance for now.

Thanks for the instructions. I felt better doing it this way than swareting. I got to see better what all I was loading into Slackware, and it forced me to read all the comments, etc.

It isn't that bad if you keep up as they come along, and congrats.

I just recently took the leap to current myself. The only problem so far that I have come across is the xorg.conf listing of Keyboard being changed to kbd. Once I get home hopefully I will get everything changed so X works properly. I hope you don't run across any big issues and good luck.

probably an obvious answer to this one, but wish to clarify:

is doing an upgrade to current manually by looking thru changelog and upgradepkg'ing more reliable than using swaret to automate an upgrade?

To add to ringwraith's list above, once you've installed/upgraded all the new packages, you'll probably find some config files ending with .new in /etc or one of it's subdirectories. So more likely than not, you'll want to replace the current (old) configuration files with the .new versions.

And before you start upgrading packages, I would recommend going into single-user mode (telinit 1).

Garry

As a regular swaret user, I would have to say yes. Simply said, swaret is a time-saving automation of a manual process. It's possible (likely even) that it might work fine for you. But there will be things that you should know, and examining the Changelog is the only way to be aware of them. (Like the "keyboard"->"kbd" changes to /etc/X11/xorg.conf alluded to above.)

Swaret also can't catch when Patrick renames packages or splits 1 into 2, etc.

Besides, once you become more familiar with how to upgrade your system, you'll have a better understanding of how automation tools work and be able to judge if/when you wish to use them.

As another note, I never "upgradepkg" any of the kernel packages. I always install the new ones and edit /etc/lilo.conf to boot from multiple kernels in case (for whatever reason) the new one doesn't work. This way, I don't have to hunt for a boot floppy/cd.

Garry