installing FC2 over RH7.3

[Graeme Nichols]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason Pinkney" <j-pinkney at onu.edu>
To: <redhat-install-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 9:09 AM
Subject: installing FC2 over RH7.3


>
> Dear Redhat-install gurus,
>
> I thought I better check with someone before
> I accidently destroy my data:
>
> 1. Isn't it true that I can install FC2 onto a disk that
>    currently has RHL 7.3, without repartitioning, and the new
>    operating system will somehow replace the old one without
>    overwriting my data?
> 2. If so, would it make a difference if my disk is 99% full
>    with about 1 Gb remaining?
>
> thanks for any reply,
> Jason

Hello Jason, it MAY be OK. My experience upgrading (overwriting if you like) 
from RH8 to FC2 was reasonably pain free, but there are some gotcha's. FC2 
is much bigger, requires more disk space, particularly in the /boot 
directory. The version of X is different and will require re-configuring but 
it should boot to a GUI within reason. You can boot to a command line and 
then run the X config utility. 1 spare Gig of disk space 'should' be OK. 
More is much safer. You will have to do some fine tuning after upgrading. 
The biggest headache I have experienced is with the 2.6 kernel. Its 
bug-ridden! Just some of the problems I have had with the 2.6 kernel are: 
USB problems, sound problems, wlan problems and after moving up to the 2.6.8 
kernel from 2.6.6 my installation of StarOffice 5.2 would no longer load. 
Moving back to the 2.6.6 kernel fixed that but my wlan adaptor no longer is 
detected. However I don't use that at the moment.

Altogether though I am happy with my FC2 install upgrade. I did an 'upgrade' 
on my laptop by doing an 'install' rather than an upgrade and it resulted in 
a much easier and better end result. If you can backup all your user data to 
somewhere you can be sure you can restore it from then a fresh install is 
the way to go, but an 'upgrade' will work, at least it did on my RH8 --> 
FC2.

Give it a go, but BACKUP your stuff first!! You have been warned. Murphy 
does not discriminate! Good luck.

Graeme