Re: upgrading to Fedora Core 1 with apt

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

Quoting Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>:
> Personally, I think upgrading to Fedora Core 1 is the right thing to
> do.  It's been rock-solid for me for several months now on many
> systems, and upgrades from various older versions of Red Hat (7.2
> through 9) have been almost 100% painless.  In addition, some of the
> features in FC1 (like exec-shield) make it particularly appropriate
> for servers.

I ditto that advisement.

Fedora Core (FC) 1 is basically Red Hat Linux (RHL) 10.  If you had to assign a
trio of the traditional .0, .1 and .2 in a series, then that's basically RHL8,
RHL9 and FC1.  So if you're looking for a new "base" in a Red Hat distro, FC1
should be it.

For existing systems, I recommend the following:

- RHL7.x:
  Recommended:  FC1
Compatibility:  RHEL 2.1

You really need to get away from RHL7.x.  The best move is just to move to FC1,
or at least RHL9 with Fedora Legacy updates (maybe even FC1 components).  If you
have found there is a compatibilty issue with doing so, then Red Hat Enterprise
Linux (RHEL) 2.1 is the most ABI compatible.

- RHL8
  Recommended:  FC1
     Adequate:  RHL8 + Fedora Legacy updates

RHL8 is really the _oldest_ version you can stick with Fedora Legacy updates for
IMHO.  But it's really a better idea to get to FC1 IMHO.

- RHL9
  Recommended:  RHL9 + Fedora Legacy updates + FC1 components
         Also:  RHEL 3

If you have RHL9, you're okay.  Now only do the Fedora Legacy updates do quite
well, but I'm having 0 issues with pointing my Apt repositories at FC1 ones. 
I've been updating with FC1 components and extras.  About the only ABI
difference I see between RHL9 and FC1 is the NTPL in some of the kernels and not
in others.

RHEL 3 is the ABI equivalent of RHL9 (and even FC1 to an extent).

> 1) Update /etc/apt/sources.list:
>   # os        = Fedora Core packages
>   # updates   = Fedora Core updates
>   # stable    = Fedora.us (Extras) packages
>   # kspei     = Steve's random stuff (optional, mostly stuff submitted
> to fedora. us)
>   # freshrpms = freshrpms.net packages (optional, mostly desktop
> stuff)
>   rpm http://apt.kspei.com fedora/1/i386 os updates stable kspei
> freshrpms
>   rpm-src http://apt.kspei.com fedora/1/i386 os updates stable kspei
> freshrpms
>   # Fedora Extras non-US packages (optional)
>   rpm http://rpm.livna.org fedora/1/i386 stable
>   rpm-src http://rpm.livna.org fedora/1/i386 stable
>   # Macromedia Flash plug-in (optional)
>   rpm http://sluglug.ucsc.edu/macromedia/apt fedora/1 macromedia

I'm using a very similiar list with the 3 repository references.

> 2) Create/edit /etc/apt/preferences:
>   Package: *
>   Pin: release c=os
>   Pin-Priority: 992
>   Package: *
>   Pin: release c=stable
>   Pin-Priority: 991
> This will help prevent any conflicts between the various repositories.

Ahh, yes, that's something I have run into before.  Thanx for the tip,

> 3) apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
> If apt-get dist-upgrade fails, you probably just need to clean some
> things up manually. The simplest route is usually to just apt-get
> remove the offending packages.

Like anything from FreshRPMS.NET, Ximian, etc...

> 5) The next fun thing is to update gpg keys for any of the non-Fedora
> repositories you want to use.
>   # My key, for the "kspei" stuff.
>   wget -O /etc/apt/gpg/gpg-pubkey-cf71a040-3cf27730
> http://apt.kspei.com/conf/gpg-pubkey-cf71a040-3cf27730
>   # Freshrpms key
>   wget -O /etc/apt/gpg/gpg-pubkey-e42d547b-3960bdf1
> http://ftp.kspei.com/pub/freshrpms/RPM-GPG-KEY
>   # Livna key
>   wget -O /etc/apt/gpg/gpg-pubkey-a109b1ec-3f6e28d5
> http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY
> apt-get will automatically install any gpg keys the next time you run
> it (assuming they're in /etc/apt/gpg/ and are named gpg-pubkey-*.

GnuPGs are life.  People newer to Linux complain about them, but they also don't
know why they get trojans when people download (let alone don't know that
package management is why Linux can run multiple versions of libraries and
applications, but Windows cannot).


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. -- b.j.smith@ieee.org
Engineer, Technologist and School Teacher
--------------------------------------------
Fedora Legacy:  Kicking Apt and Taking Nodes
  http://fedoralegacy.org/  
Updates for RHL 7.2, 7.3, 8.0 and (soon) 9.0


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