Subj?
some time ago, i remember, somewhere there in forum, AlienBob tell, how he upgrade his production server, but sadly, then i do not copy that information for later use.
now i want to upgrade my "production" web / ftp / firewall / etc server from 14.0 to 14.2 and afraid, how i must do that in right way, to minimize possibility to broke something...

maybe anyone knows the right procedure, or remember that post?

thanks in advance

There is no support to upgrade directly from 14.0 to 14.2. All upgrade steps would require you to go from 14.0 -> 14.1 -> 14.2.

But within each installation media, there is an UPGRADE.txt file that will discuss the process to upgrade from the previous version.

ok, i am always in process.
going throught 14.1, now i after
14.2 "slackpkg upgrade-all", except kernel-oriented packages ( kernel, kernel source, kernel firmware, and so).
what way now can i install all these skipped fresh kernel files via slackpkg ?



/etc/slackpkg# slackpkg install kernel*

Looking for kernel* in package list. Please wait... -DONE


slackpkg 2.82.1
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ───────────────────────





┌─────────────────────────────install────────────────────────────────┐
│ Choose packages to install: │
│ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │[*] kernel-module-ecryptfs-4.4.14-x86_64-1.txz │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
├─└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘─┤
│ < OK > <Cancel> │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘







No packages selected for install, exiting.

You have at hand a full backup, right?

Do a fresh install of Slackware 14.2 then copy there the files you need to keep. That's way easier, faster and safer.

Also, UPGRADE.TXT doesn't mention using slackpkg in the process of upgrading slackpkg.

You should only do that if you master usage of slackpkg in this use case and its caveats. You question raises doubt about that.

Anyway Upgrading Slackware to a New Release is a must read.

Take the time to plan each step carefully. Good luck.

since you already have your kernel-* packages install, running slackpkg install will not install it again.
You may need to install it manually using installpkg or you can use slackpkg upgrade-all to upgrade it (if it's not in your /etc/slackpkg/blacklist).

If you added the kernel to the blacklist of slackpkg, it won't find it when you search for it. Otherwise, it should show up when you run slackpkg upgrade-all, even if you unchecked it the first time. upgrade-all will show all packages that are installed and not blacklisted that have a different version on your mirror.

But, overall, I agree with Didier. It is usually faster and cleaner to do a fresh install and just copy your configs over.

Now you want install new version of installed packages -- slackpkg upgrade does this (with crossed fingers only)
# slackpkg upgrade-all
or
# slackpkg upgrade kernel

But if you want to save old kernel for rescue purposes you can
# slackpkg download kernel
and it downloads packages into /var/cache/packages/. Then install them in parallel
# ( cd /var/log/packages ; installpkg kernel-*t?z )
Then in case of generic kernel copy old initrd and make initrd for new kernel.
Then modify boot loader config accordingly (make menu entries to boot old kernel with full real names instead of /boot/vmlinuz* symlinks). In case of LILO run
# lilo
to apply modifications.

After successfull reboot you can rebuild 3rd party's kernel modules (drivers), then remove old kernel packages or not. If not it's good idea to rename corresponding files in /var/log/packages and /var/log/scripts something like this:
kernel-huge-version-arch-build --> kernel-huge-old-version-arch-build
kernel-generic-version-arch-build --> kernel-generic-old-version-arch-build
kernel-modules-version-arch-build --> kernel-modules-old-version-arch-build
...
or slackpkg will say about multiple package versions and cannot continue.

1 members found this post helpful.

yes, i have a full backup, because i migrate to larger disks / raid.

but that was server. there are some software, who i really not want to configure again, especially that "openwebmail" noghtmare, as so,
i not want to install fresh system, yet in another obstacles it was best solution. but not in this...

it not blacklisted.

i suppose to copy ( made backup) of /boot , /lib, /lib64 and /usr/src , /etc

as i understand, that was sufficient to save old kernel.
then i do again slackpkg upgrade-all, upgrade all kernels files, then copy back my saved kernels / libs too, and edit lilo.conf ...?

thank you very much!

try that bit later today, once i come home...

Which leads to another warning: you need to make sure that all software you use which is not shipped in Slackware work the same (or at least, still work) in Slackware 14.2. Be aware that YMMV widely in that matter, and there is no guarantee.

So, if you have another box to investigate, check first that all server software that you added to Slackware still behave as you'd expect in Slackware 14.2...

be sure, i understand, there is no warranty.
but that, who you recommend, double the work, and i am a very lazy person, as so, i try to do all on working server, and if something i cant get to work - i decide, leave all as it is, or restore system back to 14.0 state by copying back all system files, and re-run lilo....

To go along with Didier's warning, packages compiled on an older version of Slackware could require the older versions of that software's dependencies that are now upgraded. This could very likely lead to your software not running or having random crashes. There were a LOT of changes from just 14.1 to 14.2 that required recompiling 3rd-party software, and I cam imagine that list grows quite a bit larger when you move from 14.0 to 14.2. However, many times the config files will continue to work (even if the programs don't without a recompile).

Ideally, to minimize your upgrading headache, I would recommend spinning up a 14.2 VM and build all your required 3rd-party software on that machine. Then, I'd recommend doing a fresh install of 14.2, copy those 3rd-party packages from the VM and install them, then restore your configs. This is likely to save you a substantial amount of downtime, and you could probably be back up and running in less than 30 minutes (depending on how many 3rd-party packages you have and how many custom configuration files you have).

1 members found this post helpful.

uff, restored my old state - 14.0.
after update to 14.1 there looks like broken openwebmail due to mismatch of perl version and installed modules , and upgrading to 14.2 broke all another - configured apache servers, packet forwarding on router, also md1 becomes md126 and so on - do not have such time to investigate all that, and also looks like in that case better is, yes, install fresh 14.2 and try to copy / rewrite most configfiles, and try to get work sendmail with milter- greylisting, spamassassin, milter-regex, procmail, joomla, et cetera, et cetera, to work...:\

btw, after upgrade from 14.0 to 14.1 web looks like to continue work ok - there is switch from mysql to mariadb, who, looks, become flawless.....

ok, try to investigate in next month all that strange things to try migrate server to slack 14.2 for forget about all that for another 5 or so, years....

but looks like there is a lot of time and work.....

hope, in all that struggle i do not lost some emails...

Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all. (André Breton, Manifeste du Surréalisme)