I have 2 Slackware installs at home, both tracking -current. When 13.37 is officially released I'm considering changing one of those to remain as "stable" for general family consumption. My question is...when the next release comes, how painless and/or successful is the upgrade process. Yes..I know of the detailed upgrade instructions by Pat V, and I know I'd have no difficulty executing them. What I'm looking for is actual feedback from users regarding their upgrade experiences.

If you are currently using -current on both, then when 13.37 is released, you won't have to do anything. You'll be running 13.37. If you want to switch them to stable, change your mirrors file in /etc/slackpkg to point to stable instead of current to keep up with security patches.

1 members found this post helpful.

I tried upgrading about a month ago for the first time (I used Slackware on my netbook and all my files there are dropbox sync'd anyway) and it was pretty painless, except I screwed up my lilo.conf (it didn't boot properly, but it was all my fault). I'd say go for it.

I have used the updating route each release since I started using Slackware with 10.0 or 10.1.

There is no simple one point-click-and-install. As you mentioned, reading the change log and related docs is required to be successful. Typically there is at least one "gotcha" in the docs. Usually something like adding a new group or splitting a package.

I don't recall any significant mishaps although I have overlooked or misunderstood some of the "gotchas" that have appeared with each release.

I use a partition scheme that allows me to avoid worrying about user data files, boot files, etc. I use separate /boot, /home, /home/public, /tmp, /usr/local, and /var partitions. I install the root tree and /usr on the same partition and that is the only one that gets updated.

Installing fresh is an option too.

I find that both options require about the same amount of time for me because with my partitioning scheme, really all I need migrate are my configuration files and system scripts.

If you are not picky about config files and scripts and such then a person can be updated in an hour or so. If you have accumulated a collection of customized config files and system scripts through the years, then I would say either route is painless but is a wee bite tedious. I use virtual machines and some testing partitions to hone the process either way and that reduces the potential for serious errors.

Either way, if you are comfortable with computers and the Slackware design, then keeping one family box stable with the recent release will mean a few hours every 9 to 10 months or so to update to the next version or install fresh.

I keep my systems at stable, do not mess with the kernel and apply patches as they're released.

I've tried the update method a couple of times, had problems (as in, took forever plus a week, plus my own failings) and adopted pretty much the same approach as Woodsman: I have separate partitions for /opt, /usr/local, /home, /var/lib/mysql, /var/lib/virtual, /var/lib/psgl and one called /spares (that contains huge geographic files and other large cumbersome stuff). I copy /etc off to /spares and do a clean install whenever there's a release, get back necessaries from /spares/etc and I'm running. Takes as little as 45 minutes (new, fast boxes sure beat the heck out of old slow boxes).

I try to install any additional software, such as from SlackBuilds.org, in the /usr/local tree (there is no performance hit from doing that that I've ever noticed). Most of the time that works although I have found that rebuilding when there is a GLIBC version change isn't a bad idea -- no big deal, just make sure I have the current source and SlackBuild, build it, upgradepkg and life is good.

When I stop and think about it, doing this is essentially the same as doing an upgrade -- all the obsolete stuff goes away when the root partition is formatted and the new stuff goes on and zip, zap you're done without removing obsolete stuff, upgrading whatever needs upgrading and hoping you didn't miss a step somewhere or other, eh?

Hope this helps some.

Thanks everyone for your input, especially Woodsman and tronayne.

Think I'll keep the one box at "stable" when 13.37 hits. Doesn't sound like too much to worry
about upgrading. Even so, at the worst case scenario, a fresh install is no big deal.