Hey everyone,

I am somewhat of a linux noob and slackware noob at that...but i have been trying yo update Slackware, but everytime i do i end up reinstalling..

What is the best and safest way to update slackware? I Have tried Slackpkg..but it hasn't seems to do much good...or maybe I just screw it up each time.


thanks.. matt

IMO it doesn't get much easier than slackpkg. If this is for a Slack 12 install, did you edit the version number in the line for your chosen mirror in /etc/slackpkg/mirrors ?

I used one of the "current" links, but after a restart it couldn't start X.

so all i have to do is change is the "11.0" to "12.0"

ex:

ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/d...lackware-11.0/

i have to change an line like that to...

ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/d...lackware-12.0/




Thanks again. Matt

Yes. Updating to current is more involved and unless you have a real reason to use current, stick with the stable release which of course is currently :P 12. Yes.. just change 11 to 12. Once you edit the mirrors file, edit the blacklist file if you so desire.

Then, its simply a matter of running the following: (depending on what you initially installed, the install-new and install patches steps may yield stuff you don't want or need installed, or may show nothing. ie: I don't run KDE, so I don't install those items)

slackpkg update
slackpkg install-new
slackpkg install patches
slackpkg upgrade-all

Now if i want to update the Kernel... i need to uncomment these lines and do what it says?

# This is a blacklist file. Any packages listed here won't be
# upgraded, removed, or installed by slackpkg.
#
# The correct syntax is:
#
# to blacklist the package xfree86-devel-4.3.0-i386-1 the line will be:
# xfree86-devel
#
# DON'T put any blank line(s) or any space(s) before or after the package name.
# If you do this, the blacklist will NOT work.
#
# Automated upgrade of kernel packages aren't a good idea (and you need to
# run "lilo" after upgrade). If you think the same, uncomment the lines
# below
#
#kernel-ide
#kernel-modules
#kernel-source
#kernel-headers



Or is there a better way to update the Kernel?

Even if you are using a tool to automatically do upgrades for you I would suggest that you read the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.txt file from the Slackware source.

If nothing else, I would say you should do the upgrade from runlevel 1 as this will decrease the likelihood of upgraded a program while it is still being used in a running process,

No, don't do that. You'll run into big troubles.

Don't use slackpkg to upgrade to newest version.

Either follow the UPGRADE.txt or backup your data and reinstalll from scratch, which is always the best method for all o/ses, including windoze, etc.