Unable to upgrade Fedora 16 to 17 on a multiboot system

Puneet_P · 07-28-2012, 10:04 PM

Hello Everyone!!

I have a multi-boot PC containing Windows 7, Fedora 16 and Kubuntu 12.04. The system starts up in Kubuntu grub.
Ever since the stable release of Fed17, I am trying to upgrade my Fed16 to it - I have tried preupgrade and I have tried upgrading from a DVD - nothing has worked for me.

Can somebody help me on this.

Thank you
---
Puneet

John VV · 07-28-2012, 10:24 PM

preupgrade will ( as per the documentation) require fedora's boot partition to be 786 meg - 1 gig is better

you are not using fedora's bootloader to boot the system
preupgrade will be a " problem"

the dvd
pop it in and put a check in "upgrade an existing system"

pop in ubuntus dvd and reinsatll ubuntus bootloader

or

just back up your personal data on fedora 16

and do a new clean install
using a custom layout
and a custom boot option

jonnie · 10-04-2012, 11:49 AM

"786 meg"? Where is that documentation? All I can find is

Quote:

Fedora 13 and above has a 500 MB default boot partition. The default /boot filesystem size of 200MB for previous releases can be a problem for users upgrading from that release.

on https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_use_PreUpgrade...

Second, can anyone tell the symptoms that occur when your /boot is too small?

suicidaleggroll · 10-04-2012, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John VV

or

just back up your personal data on fedora 16

and do a new clean install
using a custom layout
and a custom boot option

This is what I would do. After much trial and error, I've found that clean installs are really more of a mental block than anything else. It usually takes me LESS time to wipe the partition, install the new version from scratch, restore my backed up files, and set everything up how it was versus trying to do a live in-place upgrade and then fight through all of the problems that arise from it.

I recently did this when upgrading my laptop from OpenSUSE 12.1 to 12.2. I did some research, did the live upgrade, fought tooth and nail with the live upgrade until it finally went through (which took 3-4 hours in total), then spent the next WEEK fighting weird bugs here and there...random lockups, etc, before caving and installing 12.2 from scratch. Installing from scratch and getting everything set back up took two hours total. I should have just done that from the beginning.

cincindie · 10-05-2012, 05:06 AM

If you use preupgrade, and the /boot partition is too small, preupgrade will complain saying that it does not have enough space (it will ask you to free up x amount of space). If space is low, you can safely delete all kernels, initrams, etc. except the latest one. I have a system with a 200 MB boot partition (started the system with F8; been upgrading with each new release ever since); I have managed to upgrade using preupgrade, DVD upgrade or netinstall with minimum problems (so far). Usually, upgrades using netinstall works best as you can get the latest version of the packages (sometimes, dependencies may fail; you may have to manually remove some of the old packages after reboot). At what point is your upgrade failing?

jonnie · 10-06-2012, 05:32 AM

Hej, that's really the first post that says upgrading actually works. I'll give it one more try this weekend, else I'll override the system.
My preupgrade fails, as described, after the reboot. So preupgrade downloads all the stuff, installs itself into /boot and then restarts, showing a gray screen with some weird-looking window manager. It asks me to enter the key to my harddrive but then decides that it can't upgrade the existing system. As if it couldn't tell right from the start.
Maybe this also is a problem of a 32 vs. 64 bit architecture thingy?

cincindie · 10-06-2012, 07:53 AM

Preupgrade should have downloaded the correct version (either 32-bit or 64-bit, depending on what is installed in your system); so, it may not be a problem with 32 vs- 64-bit (unless you tried the DVD upgrade option with the wrong version). Kernels for the new version are stored in the /boot partition, while the other packages are stored in the tmp directory. I am not sure I understand about the key - I have never been asked to enter a key during upgrades. However, periodically, a new GPG key is required before signed packages can be installed. The software should have asked you to accept the new key before reboot. Can you see the F16 kernels in the boot manager (in addition to the F17 preupgrade option)? You could also try netinstall (need to configure your internet connection during install). Good luck with the upgrade!

jonnie · 10-07-2012, 05:34 AM

I've tried the DVDs as well (17 and 16), they don't say "version mismatch" but else the same problem.
About the key, it's not some gpg key of the repository, it's the key to the hard drive, my fedora is encrypted with luks (standard method provided by the fedora installer).
I'll give the netinstall a try.