How to upgrade a HD installation?

[okok]

There was a discussion without a definite answer (I think) on how to upgrade an HD installation to the newest version.

How should this be done?

[Sage]

If you have a 'Full' installation - don't! See recent discussion.
If you use Frugal, see the detailed advice given in many many threads. But basically, save your data as an .sfs? or whatever, and replace the vmlinuz, initrd, etc. Best to do this manually. Don't allow your new version on CD to run automatically without cheat codes until you've saved what you need.
OK, okok, time to go away and do some reading. Let us know how you achieved your wish so that everyone can benefit from your experiences.

[Bruce B]

Maybe this helps - how I do it.

I'm running 2.13 on a big partition

I'd like to upgrade to 2.14, so I installed it on a small partition. My 2.13 installation has lots of extra apps, utilities and configuration modifications.

Little, by little, as time permits, I'll boot into the new release and configure it more or less to match the older 2.13. When the work is all done on the newer version, I'll save off the older version and copy the newer one to the big partition.

I'll have to make a little modification to /etc/fstab, then it should be ready to go.

Sounds like a lot of work and in my opinion it is. What else is one to do?

In any event, regardless of the operating system or distribution, I generally prefer a fresh install over an upgrade.

[Sage]

I've tried this before, Bruce, with mixed results. One really needs a shopping list of which files can be transferred, which cannot, and those that need a little editing first. Some of this advice has appeared here previously, but maybe a long time ago.

[Bruce B]

Sage, as far as I know the only file that needs modification once you are ready to make the transfer to the other partition is fstab.

Unless, when you made the 'temporary' option 2 install you installed grub. In that case there would be more involved.

When I installed 2.14 and it got to the grub part, I continued canceling out until the windows went away. This way at the end of the installation the GRUB on the MBR was unmodified and still pointing to the original partition and using the components as they were before the installation.

[Sage]

Thanks, Bruce.
Upgrade is rather important to ordinary clods and deserves Barry's closest attention. It needs to be totally automated. Some other distros manage this, but not all.

[okok]

Thanks, Bruce.
Upgrade is rather important to ordinary clods and deserves Barry's closest attention. It needs to be totally automated. Some other distros manage this, but not all.

I agree. As a relatively not so knowledgeable Linux user, I find Puppy convenient to use, but when it comes to things like upgrade and various tweaks and customizations that may at times be necessary or desirable, I find myself at trouble, and do not always have the time to research and experiment with things I don't understand well enough. Especially in Puppy, which presents itself as suitable for non-experts, this fact is a major drawback.