Upgrading an old Gentoo System

millsspam · n00b Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 6

I have a problem. I have two Gentoo systems that I have been using for years, but not keeping updated. Last time I mucked around (with one of them anyway) I got emerge errors. I would really like to bring them up to date, but I am afraid they are so out of date, that blindly using emerge could get me into trouble. Am I being paranoid? Should I just do a full backup and go for it? Here is the output of emerge --version:

Portage 2.1.2.2 (default-linux/x86/no-nptl/2.4, gcc-3.3.4,glibc-2.3.3.20040420-r1, 2.4.22-gentoo-r5 i686)

Is there a process I should go through (incremental upgrades, etc.) ?

Any

di1bert · l33t Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 963 Location: Oslo, Norway

Start with an emerge --sync to bring your portage up to date. Then update your profile to the
latest version of whatever it is your using.

Lastly you'll want to do an emerge -puDv world to see what needs to be updated.
If it's too much, it may be easier to do a full backup and re-install. It all depends on how
much time you want to spend working on updates and updating configuration files.

-m

millsspam · n00b Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 6

I just looked at the change log in the profile directory and noticed that 2.4 kernel profile had been depracated in Aug. and removed completely last month. Talk about bad timing!

What are my options? Anybody leave a backdoor open for me to get myself up to 2.6?

di1bert · l33t Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 963 Location: Oslo, Norway

This would probably be a good place to start...

-m

yngwin · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:42 am Post subject:

The easiest way is probably a complete reinstall. I'd also recommend an up-to-date stage3 from http://funtoo.org/linux/ to circumvent the expat problem (although these are not official stages).
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cwr · Veteran Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 1969

If you really mean _years_, then I'd re-install. There have been significant changes to udev, portage,
gcc, and probably a number of other bits of infrastructure I haven't noticed. Back up your home directories
and rebuild from a current portage setup - or better still, wait until the end of march when the 2008.0 stuff
should all have been checked and tested.

Will

d2_racing · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:52 pm Post subject:

Yep, and also maybe you should do a Stage 4 or a Stage 5 backup.

millsspam · n00b Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 6

Thank you, all. I appreciate your input. This is very helpful, it isn't what I hoped for, but it is not a surprise.

I will catchup, reorient with where Gentoo is now, what the issues are, develop a step by step plan, and go from there. It looks as though it is going to be a major project. Clearly, until I do it though, I am dead in the water. I can't even emerge an update to the "ls"

McLink · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 9:21 pm Post subject:

Step one (zero?) would be to back up /etc, /home and /root, as well as any other directories containing anything valuable (a lot of /var's subdirectories, for example). If you're going for a complete reinstall, it's also a good idea to back up /var/lib/portage/world as an easily accessible plain-text file, so you'll at least have an idea which packages to install once you get it back to a basic state.

Just for kicks, I'd try upgrading rather than reinstalling, though. If it doesn't work or if it's too difficult, it takes 10 minutes tops to get back to a blank hard disk anyway.

millsspam · n00b Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 6

Thanks, Sir Link! Do you think I would just symbolically link to the 2006 or 2007 directories for my make.profile?

d2_racing · Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:39 am Post subject:

you should use eselect instead.