Hi all.

(1) Is upgrading the system to current good? Cause i've seen some people complaining that upgrading to current messed all up.

(2) If it is a good thing to do, how can I do it?

(3) Can I just upgrade part of it, like upgrade kde-network to 3.5.4 and the rest still on 3.4.2?

(4) And how can I upgrade just part of a package? For example, kde-network install alot of stuff and if I just wanted to install a new version of Kopete how can I do it?

Thanks.

I'll only upgrade if I need to, when the system is working why risk soemthing that could break it? That would be my advice, but, I do differently of course...

That depends on your package manager, I don't use slack so I'm not sure of that one.


Sure you can

If you can get the latset source for kopete you should be able to recompile it yourself as long as you have the right tools installed, but I don't know about upgrading just part of a package.

My 2 cents:

1. Your question is a little unclear. If you are asking "should I upgrade from v10.2 to -current", my answer would be No, because Slack v11.0 is about to be released. If you are asking "should I do an upgrade or a fresh install from the latest release" my answer would be to do a clean install.

2. If you are talking about a clean install, you can just re-run the installation process. Keep your existing partition scheme, and just install the latest release into those same partitions. Note: be sure you do not reformat the /home partition or you'll lose your personal data

3. You could upgrade a specific component of KDE, but I'm not sure what the results would be. KDE is an integrated environment, and I'd say the components are intended to be installed as a set. I haven't tried to upgrade just one component without upgrading others, so I'm not sure how it would turn out.

4. Packages are self-contained, so any modifications you wanted to make would need to be done manually, as lordtweety mentioned.

Good luck with it either way

I'm probably not saying anything that hasn't been said already. Some people like to keep current just so they can be current. Some people keep current because they have very new hardware or are developing apps or drivers or kernel code and have to track the latest kernel or package for this or that.

Some people deliberately don't keep current, if they run production servers for example they need something which is known to work. Other people just don't care.

Personally I hadn't intended to run Slackware 11 until I needed to. Now that I have some more space on my drives I'll probably slap it down when it gets released and see how it feels. When I get my stuff running over there like I want I'll move to it but I won't be in a rush since my setup works for me now.

So it all depends on you, like the guys have said.

I found the kde 3.5.3 from kde's web-site (well they link you to a mirror) worked really well on slackware 10.2. Even the arts worked better for me.

I tried the 3.5.4 and didn't like it, so I went back to 3.5.3 FWIW.

Hi, thanks for your replies.

So the bottom line is:
If it works don't mess with it, unless you want!

About upgrading one component of KDE it can be done but its not advisable.

If I want to upgrade part of a package (in this case Kopete) there is no trouble. Just get the sources, configure, make, make install.

For now i'll just keep with the original v10.2, and since v11 is coming out soon it's just a matter of patience

I'll try to install new kopete version and see what happens.

Once again, thanks all for the replies

I think a primary reason why some people experience problems is impatience. Excepting the security updates, everything in current is considered beta. True, seldom do those updates cause problems, but occasionally they do because if you browse the change log you'll notice that occasionally PV pulls a particular update and restores the previous version. Patience is a good principle with updating to current.

Another reason why those issues occur is that a handful of people do not read the change log. Some updates in current do indeed affect other packages, and sometimes packages are split such that updating to a newer version does not necessarily update all previous packages.

Many people stay current and seldom have problems. However, if one has no need to be on the bleeding edge, let alone the cutting edge, then patience would avoid many of these kinds of problems. Wait a week or two before updating any non-security update and read the change log.

Occasionally updated packages cause problems, as mentioned by Old_Fogie. Not all people experience these issues, but again patience might be a word toward wisdom. I tend to wait until updating KDE because the KDE people tend to push the envelope with updates and releases. And with the last update, they included non-bug fixes, which in my mind is a no-no. These minor releases should be bug fixes only. They should have released 3.5.4 as a bug and patch release then subsequently released 3.6.0 with the new additions.

You can't unless you want to compile the sources yourself. I disagree with the manner in which KDE is packaged and circulated, but I do not control that process. I agree that end-users should be able to update cafeteria style, but the KDE people disagree.

Of course, all of this topic depends upon your own subjective opinion of how you value time and the perceived benefits you believe you might receive by updating to current. Many Slackers are content to wait until PV officially proclaims the next release as available and then they update.

Note: be sure you do not reformat the /home partition or you'll lose your personal data

J.W. - To make sure that I'm clear on your statement above. Anything in the /home directory will not be affected by clean install as long as you don't reformat it.??. Correct.??

I'm a noob and I have an old pc thats my first Slack box (vs. 9.0) and I want to upgrade to 10.2 which I have on the box I'm on now and I don't want to loose any of the data/music and such on there. I'm in the process of making that old p3 into my first server using Slack 10.2 kernel 2.4.31.

Thanks for your help and advise..!!

ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackwar..._AND_HINTS.TXT

Essential

Yesterday I upgraded my Slack to the max.limit (of the current sense of course).
I did not test all it's possibilities but generally I am pleased.

I have a T23 IBM laptop with Savage video.

Short observations:

3D rendering doesn't work, but I see about 30% better graphic speed performance overall. Glxgears always gave me 80 fps without 3D, now it it 135 fps. Before last upgrade it was 240 fps with 3D. As I do not use 3D too often I can wait for the fix

There's no hotplug engaged, so booting time is shorter. Networking works well (Usb Sagem adapter - usbeagle driven).
Mplayer stopped working, but it is caused by removing xmms libs, I think. I will check it by installing xmms package again or recompiling Mplayer without xmms support.

I had to change the font files adresses in xorg.conf to /usr/share/fonts/ to avoid X server startup errors. Also xinitrc redefinition in
/etc/X11/xinit/ was necessary as new slack loaded only clean X, not Kde.

The section "Module" need Dri/glx features switched off, otherwise
I could not exit Kde at all (blank screen - only ctrl+alt+del worked).

# This loads the GLX module
# Load "dri"
# Load "glx"
EndSection
# Section "dri"
# Mode 0666
# EndSection

So let's wait for the fix of the Savage driver problem ...
Anyway I'm glad I upgraded my slack to the latest current

As long as /home is on its own separate partition, Yes, a clean install won't affect your data if you leave /home as is (ie, don't format it) To use an analogy, suppose you have a dual boot machine with Windows and Linux. Reinstalling Linux will have no effect on Windows so long as you don't reformat the Windows partition. Same deal here - as long as /home has been created in its own partition, you can reinstall "around" it.

OTOH, if you have everything in one partition (eg, your /home directory lives in the root ("/') partition) then reinstalling will overwrite your data. Post your fstab (in the /etc directory) if you still have questions

Thanks alot J.W. I have / , /home, and /var all partitioned separately on the slack box I'm referring too. A friend told me to partition my box that way. I was going to try to upgrade from 9 to 10.2 but wasnt sure how to w/ cd's. I would feel better about a fresh install than upgrading since I'm not sure how to correctly do so.

Thanks for your help.!!