Is there a way to upgrade Slackware 12.2 to 13.37 without having to download the new iso and making a new install?
If there is a tutorial or a 'how to' Id like to read it. Or even a simple way to do a minimal install and then add the extra applications.

AFAIK you can't do a direct upgrade from 12.2 to 13.37, you have to update to 13.0, then to 13.1, then to 13.37 (correct me if I am wrong please).
So I would think that a fresh install is easier and less time consuming.

1 members found this post helpful.

You could try to do it, but its unsupported. If i were to go for it myself i would read the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT and UPGRADE.TXT files for each release first and then upgradepkg --install-new the packages of the latest release not forgetting to removepkg the ones that got removed.
I have no doubt that its possible, but like TobiSGD says its more time consuming than a clean installation.

1 members found this post helpful.

I would recommend to do a complete reinstall. But you don't need to download the complete isoimages.

Download the packages (with wget) and create either a minimal install-CD (look at the README in the isolinux-directory) or a bootable USB-memorystick (read the README in the USB_and_PXE_Installers directory).

While installation chose to install from a "premounted partition" where you've stored the downloaded packages (any partition which isn't reformatted while the installation).

Markus

1 members found this post helpful.

This might work, do a back up first tto prevent data loss in case this doesn't work
1. Edit slackpkg.mirrors to point a 13.37 mirror
2. Run "slackpkg update" "slackpkg upgrade tgz" "slackpkg install tgz"
3. Edit you slackpkg.mirrors again and slackpkg.blacklist to allow updating of aaa_elflibs
4. Upgrade everything else
5. May need to edit /etc/fstab to reflect the change in naming of ide drives from hda to sda if you have ide drives
6. Not sure how to handle lilo

1 members found this post helpful.

While it is probably possible to upgrade to 13.37 I would opt for a clean install after making a back-up of my data. I think this will cause you less grief.

1 members found this post helpful.

OK Thanks for that response.
Just for future ref, If I had 13.1 and I wanted to upgrade to 13.37, Would i be able to

Run "slackpkg update" then "slackpkg upgrade tgz"
resulting in a new version?

Im just trying to find alternatives to downloading the complete iso. Slackware is quite a hefty download. Perhaps install something like Salix and then add the Slackpkgs of choice. Apparently distros like Absolute and Salix claim to be pure Slackware - just pared down.
Sometimes Im lucky enough to get a dvd from a magazine or a Linux Freedom Toaster, but otherwise its an iso download of around 1,700MB as opposed to some others I mentioned of around 600MB.

I haven't upgraded with slackpkg, but I think it would be...

... according the slackpkg manpage. And since 13.0 packages are now txz. Good luck with your upgrade!

1 members found this post helpful.

I've upgraded one computer from 13.1 to 13.37 with slackpkg, it worked!

But it is not faster than a reinstall.

Markus

I think the only reccomended (and supported) way of upgrading from 13.1 to 13.37 is following UPGRADE.TXT and CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT: if you read those you can see that there are many caveats not covered by "slackpkg update ; slackpkg install-new ; slackpkg upgrade-all" (you should also run a "slackpkg clean-system" to remove obsolete packages).
following those I recently smoothly upgraded a full 13.0 install first to 13.1, then to 13.37

In the time that you have been having this discussion, you could have downloaded the iso. Whether you do an upgrade or a fresh install, I suspect you would need the iso anyway. Downloading all of the packages individually would probably take up more data than downloading the iso alone.

I gather that you have a 32-bit machine (there is no 64-bit version of Slackware 12.2) which means that you can download the CD iso's which are a more manageable 600-700 MB each. You don't need to download the sources so only the first 3 iso's need to be downloaded.

This is not true. An isofile is not compressed, the amount of data for any package is the same as for a normal download of the package.

If you create your own isoimage you will have to download only the directories "kernels", "isolinux" and from "slackware" the things you need, for example without "kde/kdei", without "e" or without "t" series.

Also you can not assume that anyone has a fast internet-connection. So it is a useful approach what the OP does, to plan the download in detail and then downloading what he needs.

@autophil: I've once written a short downloadscript for Slackware, you can find it here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ckages-877572/ I use it when I don't need all the packages, maybe you'll find it helpful

Markus

Assuming that autophil only has a telephone dialup connection with a 2Kbs download speed, I calculate that it would take about 10 days to download a 1700MB iso and about 3.5 days to download a 650 MB iso. I believe that if you are using a torrent, that you don't have to do the download in a single session. His ISP might charge extra for downloading that much data but it would probably still work out cheaper than ordering the DVDs.

However, I get the point that if the iso's are not compressed then it may be more economical to download the packages individually. The problem then becomes how to create a bootable CD that includes pkgtools and the setup programs. You wouldn't need a bootup CD if you were to try and upgrade from 12.2 but that seems more problematic.

Maybe the best solution is to download only the "d1" iso to do the initial installation then download the rest of the packages as needed.

this is no problem as I explained in post #4. In the README of the isolinux-directory there is explained how such a bootable install-CD is created.
Yes, this is possible and probably better than downloading everything.

Markus

I normally (since I have a complete copy of the Slackware 13.37 repository) use a slightly modified version of AlienBobs mirror-slackware-current.sh script to make my own bootable install discs. That script is capable of creating a mini-iso also, which comes without packages, and it can create DVDs with excluding directories, like the sources or the KDE parts. You can also download a 40MB mini-iso from Alienbob that can be used to install Slackware. This way only the packages you select during install are downloaded. This leaves room to install a solid base and then install not urgently needed packages later, in case you have some type of download-limit.

1 members found this post helpful.