Upgrading CPU and Motherboard without reinstall
 

Hello LinuxQuestions,

I would very much like to upgrade my P-III 500Mhz cpu to an AMD-64. This will require that I also upgrade my motherboard and RAM. What I'd like to know is if this is possible without reinstalling Linux. I simply have so many different services and software packages installed which I rely on daily that I just could not currently stop all of my work to reinstall and configure everything.

My system currently runs SuSE 9.0 (Linux only, not dual-boot) with kernel version 2.4.21-273 which I read does support the AMD-64 chip. None of my hardware is "weird". I'm using rather "ordinary" ethernet cards, sound card, video card, etc. My hard drives are straight forward IDE drives. Would it be possible for me to simply install the new motherboard, cpu and ram, plug my IDE hard drives back in and be in business? If I had to download and install a new kernel before I did the hardware upgrade I could do that. But I don't know if its advisable or necessary. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Warren Killian
warrenk19@comcast.net

If you're still using the stock SuSE kernel I think you'll be ok, most everying is compiled as a module.

Just make good backups.

Hi Crabboy,

Yes, I am using the stock linux kernel that came with the operating system. I haven't recompiled or anything.

You mentioned the kernel modules. I've heard about them for years but have never had the opportunity/need to go in and investigate them. With regards to upgrading my motherboard and cpu, can you think of any kernel modules in particular which might be affected/used/involved in my upgrade? I'd love to do a little exploratory reading about them.

Thanks again!

Warren Killian
warrenk19@comcast.net

If you plan to use any onboard sound, video, or NIC on the new mobo, then there's a chance that those new onboard devices would need to use different kernel modules than you're using currently. Most distros have pretty good hardware detection though, and your upgrade will probably go OK. If you're planning on continuing to use the same sound, video, and NIC, then the chances of any problems coming up would be reduced even further. (Essentially, all you're really doing is to take your hard drives out of one machine and put them into another machine, and that's usually a pretty straightforward job.) Good luck with it -- J.W.