13.0 to 13.1 via Slackpkg - is it possible?
 

Hello,

I have an old laptop that currently runs 13.0 and I would like to update to 13.1. I have thoroughly read UPDATE.TXT and understand the official procedure. But I recall a couple years ago I upgraded a laptop running 12.2 to -current using Slackpkg by just changing the mirrors and upgrading with -upgrade-all. It worked on that occasion. What results could I expect if I do the same with this laptop, changing mirrors to 13.1? I would first have to upgrade Slackpkg itself because there are currently no 13.1 mirrors in the list.

I am guessing that if it is not possible or not recommended it will be because of the kernel upgrades (2.6.29 to 2.6.33, BIG jump).

I won't try this until someone comments on the pros or cons.

I appreciate any thoughts.

Bob

I did this on two boxes. Read CHANGES_AND_HINTS.txt too. I had a problem with slackpkg getting stuck in a loop and had to redo 'update' and 'upgrade-all' on both boxes, so watch out for that one.

Don't forget to 'install-new' and 'clean-system' and sort out the .new files.

The libata changeover may affect you if your 13.0 boxes are still using /dev/hd* so read this first:

http://rlworkman.net/howtos/libata-switchover

That's pretty much all I can recall about it. No bad issues for me at least.

Thanks, dive. That one would have gotten me. It is an old IDE drive in the laptop and does use /dev/hdx. Thank you for that information. That is exactly why I posted here before I tried it.

Bob

You should probably upgrade slackpkg/pkgtools/etc. first and then upgrade in the order specified in UPGRADE.TXT and *then* do the bulk upgrade. I believe if you don't upgrade slackpkg first you may get gpg verification failures of some sort, and of course pkgtools (and tar-*.tgz, xz-*.tgz and findutils-*.txz according to UPGRADE.TXT), which of course are involved in the package installation procedure and thus should be upgraded first. Then unless you want big problems you should of course upgrade glibc-solibs. Then mass upgrade away.

But of course that is just my advice...

I had no issues when I did it
except changing the xfce4 xinitrc in /etc/X11/xinit and then redoing xwmconfig
after that it works great

upgrade pkgtool/slackpkg first as its gonna overwrite old slackpkg.conf and mirrors

T3slider, if I upgrade slackpkg/pkgtools first, will glibc-solibs not be automatically upgraded with everything else (in order)? Should this be done separately?

Bob

I don't believe it would find glibc-solibs first, since mass upgrades are just done alphabetically by series AFAIK (though I haven't really checked slackpkg to see if this is the case). When in doubt just upgrade glibc-solibs manually first and then do the mass upgrade and you should be fine.

I've upgraded a few PCs that have IDE drives that use /dev/hda and was able to successfully upgrade 13.0---->13.1. Robby's libata change over guide works.

See the upgrade threads linked in my signature.

I have been traveling a lot lately and haven't had time post an update for Slackware 13.x, but the basic process is still the same. Simply adjust accordingly as per the UPGRADE.TXT and the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT.

I actually just completed an upgrade from 13.0 to 13.1. As mentioned previously, the libata switchover is the biggest gotcha if you are not paying attention. If you have any scripts or WINE installations that use links to /dev/hdx then you have to adjust those as well.

slackpkg works great for upgrades (if used correctly), though I think simply running a script similar to what is in UPGRADE.TXT works better for upgrades across multiple versions (which is not supported anyways).

I tried step-by-step UPGRADE.TXT to do 13.0 -> 13.1, it didn't work :(

Many GTK-based applications broke. I think it was libpng-1.4.x - what could've I done wrong?

Using Slackroll would one also be able to use 'slackroll upgrade-key-packages' prior to issuing 'slackroll upgrade' ? FWIW, I used Slackroll to successfully move from 13.1 -> -current without any issues.

edit: I see now he wanted only 'slackpkg'.

sljunkie,

In my opinion the best way to upgrade from 13.0----->13.1 is to use slackpkg, it worked flawlessly for me. Did you read the libata change over guide?

http://rlworkman.net/howtos/libata-switchover

Yeah, but that is something that slackroll provides which slackpkg does not.

The maintainer/designer behind slackroll would like user input, I do believe. If you had some, I think he would like it.

What do you mean by "broke", and which apps? Stock programs?

Also, did you correctly merge all of your config files?

hitest,

That wasn't the problem, as I didn't have any IDE drives.

shadowsnipe,

For example, xfce couldn't display icons, Audacious segfaulted... I'm running 13.1 now, 'upgraded' via the dumb way - backing up /etc and my sbopkg queues, and reformatting / prior to install. Then it worked... my /home is always on another partition anyways.