[KLUG Members] installing a current version

[Adam Williams]

> I have an old (sortof) installation of SuSE 7.1 that I use a house server.  
>I would like to update everything, which YAST2 (the config / update
>tool) won't do except as individual packages.  I have downloaded an ISO
>of the boot disk for SuSE 8.0, which will supposedly boot then get the
>remaining files from an FTP server, but this doesn't work. Networking
>starts, but it can't connect to the FTP server even though TCP/IP
>settings are correct.  

Can't help much there without more specifics.  Can you capture traffic
from another box with something like ethereal and see if it is even
trying, etc....

>I've also considered converting to Redhat since it seems to do a better job
> of updating an existing installation.  

Yep, I experimented with SuSe as they claimed to have support for some
stuff that RedHat did not (specifically LVM).  I remember two things:

1 - They claim to "support" things that work, but only technically.  
i.e.  Yes the default kernel had an LVM module,  but installation
offered no ability to create a VG,  and the VG tools didn't install by
default, and once created the system couldn't boot from an LV.  Is that
"supported"?  Upon inspection I found this true of several features they
listed as "supported".  Just left a bad taste in my mouth.

2. Updates.  They either refused to install,  or installed with all the
finesse of an avenging angel after his favorite cricket team lost the
championship.

>I have 3 CD's of Redhat 7.3,
>but seem to be running into partition table problems.  (This is on a
>different machine so I don't kill a production box.)  On most attempts
>it takes 10 minutes or so for each partitioning operation (even
>opening the FDISK screen), and at the end it gives a critical failure

Can you post the exact message?

>that it can't read the partition table.  Anybody want to guess if
>these are BIOS translation issues or something?  The drive is a 10Gig
>IBM IDE, and the motherboard is an ASUS super-socket-7 with the ALI
>chipset.  It has the most current BIOS available, although it's fairly
>old.

Is LBA enabled?  Is the device the only device on the IDE chain?  If not
is it master or slave?