[ILUG] First Post (from a newbie Red Hat user)

[Chris Higgins]

Anthony - Welcome to the party.. 

My first reaction was to query the jump from 5.2 to 6, and I'm wondering
why you aren't looking at Redhat 7.2 (if you are planning on staying with
Redhat) - are you resource constrained on the laptop ? 

I've mostly done fresh installs anytime I've needed to upgrade 
 - I install my core os into /, /usr, 
 - Additional apps into /opt
 - Users into /home

Each is a different partition - so I can do a fresh install , and choose
to not format /opt and /home, so I get a full clean install of the next
version of the OS without impacting on my /opt and /home partitions.

I can then go to each app in /opt, and recompile/reinstall as needed.
(so I get to take advantage of any new improvements in the compilers
etc..)

It does require a certain amount of work to make sure that I keep copies
of all my key configs from /etc, but it leaves me happier that there is
less chance of some odd interaction between apps.


That being said, you asked about upgrading from 5.2, I've only done an
upgrade install once, and it would have been from around the 5.x range.
I remember being happy enough with it at the time. The system scanned for
all the rpms that I had installed, found the new versions of same and
upgraded them.

It didn't (as I recall) show me the new options, or let me pick other apps..
I had to go back afterwards and do that....

What might be worth looking at, is the apps that you have installed and
the hardware you have , and see how better supported they are in the newer
versions - you might find that a clean install finds and installs your
video driver first time, and auto-config's your modem for you (or at least
takes away the pain :)

What hardware are you running ? 
 - How much RAM, Hard Disk space ?
 - Video card etc..

I presume if you've been lurking, that you've seen the references in the
past to http://www.linux-laptop.net, and that you've gotten details on 
all the toshiba laptops (there are a few tecra's mentioned, but most seem
to be of the 5xx and upwards model number, which I presume is cpu speed ?)


> Hi all,

[HUGE CHUNK HACKED]
> 
> My next objective is to upgrade to Red Hat 6 as I need newer libraries
> installed to compile certain packages. I just thought I'd ask if anyone
> has had any problems with using the Red Hat upgrade facility or if there
> are any other issues I should be aware of. I've edited a lot of
> configuration files and installed a few packages from source and would
> rather keep all these settings as they are.
> 
> Many thanks,
> Anthony.
>
-- 
** Chris Higgins                         e: chris.higgins at horizon.ie **
** Technical Business Development        tel: +353-1-6204916            **
** Horizon Technology Group              fax: +353-1-6204949            **

CCSI# 23364