I have a test machine running Fedora FC4. I just downloaded FC5....is there a way to do and in-place upgrade to FC5?

Note...I am a newbie so bear with me if that was a stupid question.

Thanks!

Arch

If Fedora still works like it did back in the days when I used it, The installation disk will ask you whether you want to do a fresh install or an upgrade

I am not 100% sure, but see the man page for yum. On Debian based distros, it is possible to use "apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade", but I am not sure about Fedora.

Alternatively, if you have downloaded the ISOs, you can do an upgrade install - start the install process, and select upgrade when prompted during the installation program. See Here for more details.

I hope this helps
--Ian

hah cool I finally have an answer
I did the process from fc3 to fc4. What i think you have to do is:
Go to fc5 rpms and grab the new fc5 yum .rpm and install it. Also you will need to update all the repo- then you have to perform a yum update and yum will go through and update everything. Be warned though yer gonna need alot of disk space in /var for yum to dl all (/var/cache/yum IIRC) the packages its gonna need. Prior to doing all this i'd do a yum clean to purge all the caches. I googled at the time and found a how to on how to do the upgrade. Basically what the process did was make yum think it was on a really out of date machine and forced it to update everything. IIRC i also had to grab another rpm(maybe gcc) to get the yum rpm to install. Be aware though the only "supported" way to upgrade one distro to another is by using the media

terrapin24h: could you unpack your answer a bit? It sounds like you may have the info I need, but I'm not sure I understand it right and I don't want to find out the hard way.

What I want to do: upgrade from FC3 to FC5 (preferably without going through FC4) and leave all my data, directories, themes, skins, and dual boot stuff intact.

From your comment, are you saying:
--get FC5, use yum to run the FC5-installation-rpm. [no questions, if I've understood that right.]
--update all repositories. ?? what's an easy way to do that? ie could you show the actual command you'd use for that?
--tell yum to update everything [no questions there]
--"I googled at the time and found a how-to on how to do the upgrade" WHERE? I've been looking for this. I keep coming up empty. Could you give us the URL? Or at least the exact search terms you used? I tried googling using upgrade Redhat FC5 and combinations thereof, and got nowhere.

I also looked at the fedora site IBall linked to, and it sounds like downloading the ISO image, copying to CD, and then running that FC5 install disk should lead to a problem-free upgrade. However, I've heard that upgrades, rather than clean installs, tend to have "issues." Is there any truth to that rumor? Is there likely to be more truth to it if I'm trying to go straight from FC3 to FC5?

I am not sure, but I don't think you should have any problems going from FC3 to FC5.

I have heard that doing an upgrade can lead to problems, but I don't see why it should. If you are concerned, then maybe a clean install might be the way to go.

--Ian

Maybe this is some help. I went from FC4 to FC5 release, by means of the CD's and selecting "upgrade". This was the smoothest ever upgrade that I have experienced. All my stuff was left intact, and there were only a very few "*.conf saved as *.conf.rpmnew". All in all, just painless. Now, that's 4 to 5, not 3 to 5. YMMMV.

Hey GL1800,
When you did the upgrade were you able to utilize Add/Remove Applications and Software updater? Both of those failed on my first system upgrade (4 to 5) so had to fresh install that one, the second system I think installed fine, however my 3rd one it did not install the software updater program and the Add/Remove App crashes or does not even start. Just curious if all of it worked for you.

All upgrades were done via CD's

I can't recall now, if I ever tried any of that. Usually, I just "yum" for the things I need. I upgraded a drive from 4 to 5, and also did a fresh install on another drive, and by now, cant tell them apart