Upgrading from Red Hat 4 release 4 to release 7

[juniper911]

Hi, in a different thread I already explained that I am n00b for LINUX and I did try and fix it before I asked!!

I am currently on 4.4 and trying to get to 4.7, I have the ISO and looking at the release notes it says the way to upgrade is to reboot into the ISO and then follow the instructions that way. I did attempt to do this but it looked like it was an over the top install and was worried that I would lose the previous applications and other data.

Can someone confirm if this is the case or should I even be trying to upgrade this way?

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[juniper911]

I failed in trying to get a screenshot of the screen I am at. I am at the partition window where I have 3 options to remove linux partitions, all partitiions and not remove any partion use different free space.

Does this sound like a upgrade wizard?

 

[Noway2]

No, it sounds like a normal installation mode. With regards to upgrading, I don't know if RedHat supports a "distribution upgrade" option or not. Some Linux, e.g. Ubuntu do and while not completely painless, does ease the transition from one major revision to another. This may be what you were looking for.

Proceeding in the manner you have started, you have a couple of options:
1 - completely wipe the system and install an updated version from scratch.
2 - don't format the home partition, which will leave user files alone. Of course, this assumes home is in a separate partition.

I would also caution that RH 4, even 4.7 is getting pretty long in the tooth as they are now on revision 6. If you are facing a complete update to a newer system, I would really recommend going to a new distribution that will have longer support.

 

[Annihilannic]

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying things... but shouldn't you just be able to mount the 4.7 media and do an rpm -Uvh of all the packages on the media (i.e. updating any that you currently have installed)?

(or perhaps an up2date after configuring the media as the source repository, details of which I'm very hazy on)

Annihilannic
[small]tgmlify - code syntax highlighting for your tek-tips posts[/small]

 

[juniper911]

Hi, thanks for your points so far - as explained I'm a n00b!

I cannot go to version 5 or 6, need to go up to 4.7 or 4.8. I am thinking that when version 4 was the rage, there must be methods on users going from one update to another update within the same version without a complete reinstall?

Annihilannic - I have not tried that, I do know some vague commands. Is that the command I need to run?

I did try and go through the Red Hat Network but I do not have a subscription number and cannot even register an account - keeps coming with a username/password combination error!!!

I even have gone and tried to log a call with a 3rd party support team and see if they can help.

 

[Noway2]

Quoting from Red Hat's site:

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, EUS was available for the following minor releases:

4.5 (ended January 31, 2009)
4.7 (ended August 31st, 2011)

I would strongly advise you to reconsider your inability to upgrade to 5 or 6. You are leaving yourself open to exploits, which will cause a problem not only for you but for everyone else. With respect to the RHN, unless you are a paid subscriber you probably won't be able to get access. If this is what is keeping you from upgrading to a current system you might consider using either CentOS or Scientific Linux which are fundamentally identical.

 

[juniper911]

Hi, thanks for pointing out the support cover issue, for reasons I do not control it has been decided to go that update.

From googling all day, I can see that going between points is known as an update e.g. 4.4 to 4.7 and between version numbers is called a upgrade (you all may know this already)

I seem to come across many different ways that should allow me to update to 4.7 without wiping the system. I even come across a couple of RH Docs that speak of upgrading but they don't show the commands or relevant screenshots!! So close!!

I have the media CD so surely it cannot be that hard to upgrade to it? I managed to get YUM installed but not sure how to proceed. This makes me appreciate windows even more!

 

[juniper911]

Forgot to add...

Would anyone know why during the anaconda install I choose Install/Upgrade the system then cannot detect the existing system and continues as if its a new build?

Are there any switches I can put into force it to pick up the existing system?

 

[Noway2]

Have a look at the following:

http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/R...rhel-ig-x8664-multi-en-4/s1-upgd-migrate.html

This is from the RH administration guide for RH4. Surprisingly the guide is still available.

Click on the next to go to the next page. Section A.2 (the second page) talks about what can cause your system to not recognize an existing installation during an upgrade and what you can do about it. I suspect that you will be in for a wild ride in any case, so make a good backup or an image before you begin.

The process pretty much comes down to making note of which packages were installed, saving the configuration files (predominantly in /etc) and performing an upgraded installation. Note that the instructions say that it saves your existing configuration files with the extension .rpmsave, which tells me that they aren't really doing an upgrade but a replacement and leaving it up to you to merge any changes back into the config files.

I will mention that something really seems "off" about what your trying to do and this "decisions beyond your control". The upgrade process for Red Hat was designed to go through the Red Hat Network. This is part of the service that you obtain when you buy Red Hat and get Red Hat support. According to the notification sent out at the beginning of the month, (March 1, 2012) if you are a Red Hat Subscriber you have access to all versions of Red Hat Linux as well as support). You should also take a look at this page:

https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/rhel4es-errata.html

which is the issues for RHEL 4 and show that to whomever the idiot making this very bad decision is and point out to them that this is the sort of thing that they will NOT be receiving. The bottom line is that if you want Red Hat without paying for Red Hat support and the Red hat Network go with CentOS instead of trying to obtain community support for a presumably illicit copy of Red Hat

If you do not have Red Hat Support, back up your configuration files, make a backup copy of your system onto a USB drive. Given the age of your system, a 500 Gb or 1Tb drive should be more than sufficient. Especially copy your /etc drive as well as any

http://www documents

you have in a place like /var. Here is a link (from a solid author) on obtaining a list of installed packages:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-get-list-installed-software-reinstallation-restore.html

Obtain this list, and then re-install these packages after you upgrade your system. Then merge your configuration files as necessary.

 

[MikeHalloran]

I was a n00b not that long ago; in many ways I still am.

I have never gotten Anaconda to do an 'update' type installation, even after many attempts using every possible option I could find. For me, it either wipes everything out and starts over, or fails; nothing in between. Maybe I hold my tongue wrong.

I think the command given by Annihilanic should help in updating from local media, though it's been a long time since I used rpm directly.

The first thing I do when installing a CentOS distribution is run
yum install yumex
because yumex puts a nice user interface on yum.