On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 07:32:29 -0500, Nanard wrote:

> I have a stable config with Mandrake 2007.
> There is no security/lib/kernel upgrade available from the Config
> menus.

See http://www.mandriva.com/en/security/productlifetime

Depending on which version of 2007 you have, support will stop on
April 13th, 2008, or October 13th, 2008.

> All the application I need runs OK : OpenOffice, web, Java, Eclipse,
> Gimp, media players (video/audio).. :standard stuff. Will the run
> better on Mandrake 2008 ?

As always, I do not recommend an upgrade. Do a fresh install, using
dual-boot, as there are too many config changes between versions.
Get the new version updated, install of the packages you want, and
copy your data over.

> I wonder if I should install Mandrake 2008 .... is it stable ?
> finished ?

2008.0 is stable. 2008.1 is currently in it's 2nd beta release. Since
you clearly want to keep the time spent installing and configuring linux
to a minimun, I'd wait until 2008.1 is released, and then wait a couple
of weeks to see if there are any major updates.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email.
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

> As always, I do not recommend an upgrade. *Do a fresh install, using
> dual-boot, as there are too many config changes between versions.
> Get the new version updated, install of the packages you want, and
> copy your data over.
I have /home in another partition, so I can erase / without problem.
Well.... some app. will need to be re-installed anyways :-(
I prefear a fresh install than installing over my previous partition.
W$ uses other partition. I/my wife need it also for work.


I takes me around 2 or 3 nights every time I change Mandrake version
to get everything working. It's a waste of time for me (and risks...)

> you clearly want to keep the time spent installing and configuring linux
> to a minimun,
Yes : I want to **work** with Linux. I don't care about testing the
system.

>I'd wait until 2008.1 is released, and then wait a couple
> of weeks to see if there are any major updates.
Ok I will wait.

Thanks for the advice.



It would be good if at Mandrake , they provide a way to smoothly
upgrade the system online, slowy one thingk at a time. So the system
is allways up-to-date, and no more need to install/upgdare/reconfigure
**everything** through a CD/DVD.

On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:45:08 -0800 (PST), Nanard wrote:

> I have /home in another partition, so I can erase / without problem.

I have a separate partition called accounts which contains the users
files which they want to user across different releases and/or distributions.
/home is in /.
The users just link their subdirectories to /accounts/$USER. Example:

ln -s /accounts/$USER/.bash_profile
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.user_profile
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.bash_logout
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.bashrc
ln -s /accounts/$USER/bin
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.thunderbird
ln -s /accounts/$USER/work
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.cron
ln -s /accounts/$USER/comp
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.Xresources
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.Xdefaults
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.slrnrc

The reason is different releases of the desktop manager can/have
different names/values in in their config files and may not be compatible.

> Well.... some app. will need to be re-installed anyways :-(
> I prefear a fresh install than installing over my previous partition.
> W$ uses other partition. I/my wife need it also for work.

Yes, I keep spare ~12 partitions for testing and new releases,
That way I can install the new release and when I am happy with it, it
becomes the new "Production" default. The old partition become the
test partition for the next release.

> I takes me around 2 or 3 nights every time I change Mandrake version
> to get everything working. It's a waste of time for me (and risks...)

I keep an admin diary with all the commands I make after a new
install. That way I just cut from diary and paste into a terminal.
Some snippets

# bring install up to date with fixes

Click up a terminal
su - root
mcc
Click, Software Management
click, Configure media sources for install and update
Disable all removable media
Set wget in Options Global
quit mcc

ping -c1 yahoo.com

/local/bin/set_mirror

urpmi --wget meta-task --auto
urpmi --wget wget --auto
urpmi --wget rpm --auto
urpmi --wget perl-URPM --auto
urpmi --wget urpmi --wget --auto
urpmi --wget rpmdrake --auto
urpmi --wget rpm-helper --auto
service httpd stop
service postfix stop
service cups stop

# now get all updates

urpmi --wget --auto-select --auto

mv /etc/smartd.conf /etc/smartd.conf_orig
cp /rst/local/config/smartd.conf /etc


# copy in user's cron/batch jobs

cp /rst/local/config/var/spool/cron/* /var/spool/cron/
for _u in $(ls /var/spool/cron) ; do
chown ${_u}:${_u} /var/spool/cron/$_u
done



> It would be good if at Mandrake , they provide a way to smoothly
> upgrade the system online, slowy one thingk at a time.

They do, Software Management has a gui screen to allow you to pick
each package you want to upgrade.

> So the system is allways up-to-date,

Put a script in /etc/cron.daily.
About 4am, the script can do a
urpmi --wget --update --auto-update --auto
and your system would have all the daily updates installed.

> and no more need to
> install/upgdare/reconfigure **everything** through a CD/DVD.


Well, I download the dvd.iso, loop mount it, burn boot.iso to cd
~(12 MB) , boot it, select Hard drive install, pick drive,
partition, set sub-directory where iso resides, pick my packages,
about 20 minutes later I finish config and reboot.

Once I set the mirrors, I disable any removable media in Software
Management, exit mcc,
urpmi --wget --auto-select --auto
which brings the system up to date with fixes.

For third party apps, Admin diary has something like

# java jre install

cat $( ls /accounts/downloads/jre*install.txt | sort | tail -1)
and follow instructions

I cut and paste the cat command and up pops
#************** Start jre-6u4-linux-i586_install.txt **************
#*
#* Download jre from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
#* pick Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 Update 4 download
#*
#*
#* Note: /accounts/downloads is my browser download directory and
#* assumes /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins for plugin installs.
#*
#************************************************* ***************

exit 0 # just in case a newbie tries to run this as a script

As a user, click up a terminal and login as root as follows:
su - root

alias edt=gedit



chmod +x /accounts/downloads/jre-6u4-linux-i586-rpm.bin
cd /accounts/downloads
urpme jre
/bin/rm -f /etc/init.d/jexec.rpmsave

/accounts/downloads/jre-6u4-linux-i586-rpm.bin
yes

cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
/bin/rm -f libjavaplugin_oji.so

ln -s /usr/java/jre1.6.0_04/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
ls -al

#******************************************
#* disable the new java system service/deamon
#*******************************************

service jexec stop
chkconfig --del jexec
chkconfig jexec off

edt /etc/init.d/jexec
and add
exit 0
under the header comment block.
Click Save/quit

#******************************************
#* jre/java test links
#******************************************

firefox http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp
and verify version number displayed on screen

firefox http://www.bodo.com/javame.htm

#************** End jre-6u4-linux-i586_install.txt *********************

Nanard writes:

>I have a stable config with Mandrake 2007.

>There is no security/lib/kernel upgrade available from the Config
>menus.

Nope support has ceased.


>All the application I need runs OK : OpenOffice, web, Java, Eclipse,
>Gimp, media players (video/audio).. :standard stuff. Will the run
>better on Mandrake 2008 ?

Maybe

>I wonder if I should install Mandrake 2008 .... is it stable ?
>finished ?

Yes. Yes.


>The only reasons I'd be interested in upgrading :
>- new KDE seems faster (read it on the web).
>- I'm working on Android project. Maybe it will run faster.
>- I have some missing applications (config mostly) in Menu, and unable
o>to add them.

And ouwill get security upgrades.



>I use Mandrake at home, but to **work**.
>Not at all for the fun of testing a new Linux release !

The problem is you really must install-- not update-- 2008. Which means you
loose all your config changes ets and have to redo them I tried to update
from 2007 to 2008 and had a complete mess. Pam seems to have changed
significantly and trying to su to a new user was impossible ( bad password
when I had not entered one, 8 lines of error messages each time I tried to
log on,...)

Nanard writes:

>> As always, I do not recommend an upgrade. =A0Do a fresh install, using
>> dual-boot, as there are too many config changes between versions.
>> Get the new version updated, install of the packages you want, and
>> copy your data over.
>I have /home in another partition, so I can erase / without problem.
>Well.... some app. will need to be re-installed anyways :-(
>I prefear a fresh install than installing over my previous partition.
>W$ uses other partition. I/my wife need it also for work.

Yes. One gotcha I hade was thet the old fonts x11-fonts-adobe-{75,200}dpi
are not installed or even selectable on installoation and for me Maple
demanded them. Theyare on the disk so after installation you can urpmi
them.




>I takes me around 2 or 3 nights every time I change Mandrake version
>to get everything working. It's a waste of time for me (and risks...)
o
Yes, I do know what you mean.

>> you clearly want to keep the time spent installing and configuring linux
>> to a minimun,
>Yes : I want to **work** with Linux. I don't care about testing the
>system.

>>I'd wait until 2008.1 is released, and then wait a couple
>> of weeks to see if there are any major updates.
>Ok I will wait.

Well, of course it will need a bit more than a few weeks to shake out all
the bugs.
And I suspect it will be longer than "a couple of weeks"



>Thanks for the advice.



>It would be good if at Mandrake , they provide a way to smoothly
>upgrade the system online, slowy one thingk at a time. So the system
>is allways up-to-date, and no more need to install/upgdare/reconfigure
>**everything** through a CD/DVD.

Yes. The rpoblem is that they would then have to have a different update
path for each old version. Shold they go back to 2007.1? 2007.0? 2006?
10.1?....

Nanard wrote:

>> As always, I do not recommend an upgrade. *Do a fresh install, using
>> dual-boot, as there are too many config changes between versions.
>> Get the new version updated, install of the packages you want, and
>> copy your data over.
> I have /home in another partition, so I can erase / without problem.
> Well.... some app. will need to be re-installed anyways :-(
> I prefear a fresh install than installing over my previous partition.
> W$ uses other partition. I/my wife need it also for work.
>
>
> I takes me around 2 or 3 nights every time I change Mandrake version
> to get everything working. It's a waste of time for me (and risks...)
>
>> you clearly want to keep the time spent installing and configuring linux
>> to a minimun,
> Yes : I want to **work** with Linux. I don't care about testing the
> system.
>
>>I'd wait until 2008.1 is released, and then wait a couple
>> of weeks to see if there are any major updates.
> Ok I will wait.
>
> Thanks for the advice.
>
>
>
> It would be good if at Mandrake , they provide a way to smoothly
> upgrade the system online, slowy one thingk at a time. So the system
> is allways up-to-date, and no more need to install/upgdare/reconfigure
> **everything** through a CD/DVD.


I just upgraded from 2007.1 to 2008.0 on two computers.
For my laptop I've done it the natural way, formating / and leaving /home
untouched. It took 6.5 hours from installation to the end of the updates
thru the usual repositories.

To upgrade my desktop I used a NAS with all the downloaded MDV 2008.0 files.
It took 2.5 hours to have an upgraded and updated computer.

I keep a text file with the names or keywords corresponding to the packages
that I need, so it's quite easy to have the job done manually.

Previous upgrades went from LE2005 to 2007.1 and from 2006 to 2007.1 both
with no problems.

Ciao @+

On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:06:18 -0500, F8BOE wrote:

> I just upgraded from 2007.1 to 2008.0 on two computers.
> For my laptop I've done it the natural way, formating / and leaving /home
> untouched. It took 6.5 hours from installation to the end of the updates
> thru the usual repositories.

Have you renamed ~/.kde, ~/.gnom*, or are you still sorting out which
configuration files will crash, or at least stop the new versions from
working? There are some files under ~/.kde such as ~/.kde/share/apps/kabc
(addressbook) and ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/* (email), that should be
kept, but most of the config files will have to be replaced.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email.
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

On Fri, 22 Feb 2008, Unruh wrote:

> Nanard writes:
>
>>I have a stable config with Mandrake 2007.
>
>>There is no security/lib/kernel upgrade available from the Config
>>menus.
>

That's because the kernel upgrades don't appear in that location in
2007 - you have to know there's an upgrade

> Nope support has ceased.
>

Well, I have upgraded a 2007 kernel from drakconf - according to
http://www.mandriva.com/en/security/productlifetime updates will cease
in April


Robert
--
La grenouille songe..dans son château d'eau
Links and things http://rmstar.blogspot.com/

David W. Hodgins wrote:

> On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:06:18 -0500, F8BOE wrote:
>
>> I just upgraded from 2007.1 to 2008.0 on two computers.
>> For my laptop I've done it the natural way, formating / and leaving /home
>> untouched. It took 6.5 hours from installation to the end of the updates
>> thru the usual repositories.
>
> Have you renamed ~/.kde, ~/.gnom*, or are you still sorting out which
> configuration files will crash, or at least stop the new versions from
> working? There are some files under ~/.kde such as ~/.kde/share/apps/kabc
> (addressbook) and ~/.kde/share/apps/kmail/* (email), that should be
> kept, but most of the config files will have to be replaced.
>
> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>


As I wrote, I didn't have to fix nor sort anything out.

On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:52:54 -0500, F8BOE wrote:

> As I wrote, I didn't have to fix nor sort anything out.

I'm quite surprised. Nice to hear an upgrade sometimes does work
without problems.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email.
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)