Hi All,
I'm new to preupgrade and playing with Fedora test builds (alpha, beta, TC, RC or otherwise), but hardly new to Fedora. I'm hoping to do some early testing of F18 before it's released so I've built myself a F17 VM, fully updated it and have started the whole preupgrade process. I think I've run into a bug or two, but ... as I said, I'm new to this.
I've got a local mirror of development/{18,rawhide} due to a mandated proxy and in general, the wish to reinstall fast many times, if needed. I'm attempting preupgrade via ssh since I did a minimal install of F17 and have no X server installed on the VM.
Issue #1: According to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Branched#Upgrade_from_any_previous_r... , I should be able to select "Fedora 18 (Branched)". Maybe that would work, maybe not. For my first few attempts preupgrade just hung:
preupgrade-cli -d5 -v "Fedora 18 (Branched)" Loaded plugins: blacklist, whiteout No plugin match for: rpm-warm-cache No plugin match for: remove-with-leaves No plugin match for: auto-update-debuginfo No plugin match for: refresh-packagekit No plugin match for: presto Not loading "blacklist" plugin, as it is disabled Not loading "whiteout" plugin, as it is disabled Config time: 0.007 ^C^C Exiting.
A debug message here would have been helpful. Admittedly, I did not trying higher debug levels -- I didn't see any ranges documented so it just seemed a time waste to blindly poke around. Figuring that I was waiting for a network timeout, I interrupted it and did some more reading about how to use a local mirror from here: http://oliver.net.au/?p=188. I grabbed a copy of http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/releases.txt and didn't see any mention of "Fedora 18 (Branched)" as indicated on the Wiki. I edited this copy to include my own "Fedora 18 (Branched)" section that referenced my local mirror and then got much further.
Issue #2: preupgrade got busy doing lots of stuff that looked reasonable, but then ended thusly:
Preparing system to boot into installer DEBUG /sbin/grubby --title="Upgrade to Fedora 18 (Branched)" --remove-kernel="/boot/upgrade/vmlinuz" --add-kernel="/boot/upgrade/vmlinuz" --initrd="/boot/upgrade/initrd.img" --args="preupgrade repo=hd::/var/cache/yum/preupgrade ks=hd:UUID=6ed39ed0-5dab-472b-8aa0-e0c42e3264d6:/upgrade/ks.cfg stage2=hd:UUID=6ed39ed0-5dab-472b-8aa0-e0c42e3264d6:/upgrade/squashfs.img ksdevice=link" sh: /sbin/grub: No such file or directory /bin/echo: write error: Broken pipe All finished. The upgrade will begin when you reboot.
Once the upgrade starts, a VNC server will open on port 5901. Use it to monitor progress or fix problems that may arise.
Are those errors to be expected?
Issue #3: I rebooted the VM, saw the new "Fedora 18 (Branched)" choice in grub's menu, but it was not the default and so the system booted back into F17. Since I have a console to the VM, I can "assist" it along, but I suspect that shouldn't be required, right? -- John Florian Machine Data Collections Team
On Wed, 2012-08-15 at 16:19 -0400, John.Florian@dart.biz wrote:
Hi All,
I'm new to preupgrade and playing with Fedora test builds (alpha, beta, TC, RC or otherwise), but hardly new to Fedora. I'm hoping to do some early testing of F18 before it's released so I've built myself a F17 VM, fully updated it and have started the whole preupgrade process. I think I've run into a bug or two, but ... as I said, I'm new to this.
This is probably a terrible time to try preupgrade. It gets no major love until Beta, usually. If your goal is a working install of F18, your best option at present is a yum update from F17, following the directions at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_17_-.3E_Fed... . Or you can wait a week or two and get the Alpha release when it comes out.
I've got a local mirror of development/{18,rawhide} due to a mandated proxy and in general, the wish to reinstall fast many times, if needed. I'm attempting preupgrade via ssh since I did a minimal install of F17 and have no X server installed on the VM.
Issue #1: According to https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Branched#Upgrade_from_any_previous_r..., I should be able to select "Fedora 18 (Branched)". Maybe that would work, maybe not. For my first few attempts preupgrade just hung:
preupgrade-cli -d5 -v "Fedora 18 (Branched)" Loaded plugins: blacklist, whiteout No plugin match for: rpm-warm-cache No plugin match for: remove-with-leaves No plugin match for: auto-update-debuginfo No plugin match for: refresh-packagekit No plugin match for: presto Not loading "blacklist" plugin, as it is disabled Not loading "whiteout" plugin, as it is disabled Config time: 0.007 ^C^C Exiting.
A debug message here would have been helpful. Admittedly, I did not trying higher debug levels -- I didn't see any ranges documented so it just seemed a time waste to blindly poke around. Figuring that I was waiting for a network timeout, I interrupted it and did some more reading about how to use a local mirror from here:http://oliver.net.au/?p=188. I grabbed a copy of http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/releases.txt and didn't see any mention of "Fedora 18 (Branched)" as indicated on the Wiki. I edited this copy to include my own "Fedora 18 (Branched)" section that referenced my local mirror and then got much further.
It's probably a little early post-F18 for all this to be in place, but releases.txt does need updating.
Issue #2: preupgrade got busy doing lots of stuff that looked reasonable, but then ended thusly:
Preparing system to boot into installer DEBUG /sbin/grubby --title="Upgrade to Fedora 18 (Branched)" --remove-kernel="/boot/upgrade/vmlinuz" --add-kernel="/boot/upgrade/vmlinuz" --initrd="/boot/upgrade/initrd.img" --args="preupgrade repo=hd::/var/cache/yum/preupgrade ks=hd:UUID=6ed39ed0-5dab-472b-8aa0-e0c42e3264d6:/upgrade/ks.cfg stage2=hd:UUID=6ed39ed0-5dab-472b-8aa0-e0c42e3264d6:/upgrade/squashfs.img ksdevice=link" sh: /sbin/grub: No such file or directory /bin/echo: write error: Broken pipe All finished. The upgrade will begin when you reboot.
Once the upgrade starts, a VNC server will open on port 5901. Use it to monitor progress or fix problems that may arise.
Are those errors to be expected?
I think yes.
Issue #3: I rebooted the VM, saw the new "Fedora 18 (Branched)" choice in grub's menu, but it was not the default and so the system booted back into F17. Since I have a console to the VM, I can "assist" it along, but I suspect that shouldn't be required, right?
Yes, but this bug was actually present in F17 too and is apparently rather hard to fix correctly. See https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=821739 .
From: Adam Williamson awilliam@redhat.com
This is probably a terrible time to try preupgrade. It gets no major love until Beta, usually. If your goal is a working install of F18, your best option at present is a yum update from F17, following the directions at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_17_-.3E_Fedora_18 .
Oh, well that would be easier for me since it stays more in my familiar realm. (Preupgrade looks neat, but my norm is fresh installs + puppet.) Should this wisdom (both waiting until Beta and that link) be incorporated into https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Branched#Yum_update_from_previous_of... ?
Or you can wait a week or two and get the Alpha release when it comes out.
If I have to I will, but where's the fun in that? ;-)
I grabbed a copy of http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/releases.txt and didn't see any mention of "Fedora 18 (Branched)" as indicated on the Wiki. I edited this copy to include my own "Fedora 18 (Branched)" section that referenced my local mirror and then got much further.
It's probably a little early post-F18 for all this to be in place, but releases.txt does need updating.
Nice to know, thanks. I'm having lots of fun seeing what it takes to get Fedora out the door since I'm making my own derived Live spins for internal company use on embedded systems. I face many of the same challenges.
-- John Florian Machine Data Collections Team
On Wed, 2012-08-15 at 16:47 -0400, John.Florian@dart.biz wrote:
From: Adam Williamson awilliam@redhat.com
This is probably a terrible time to try preupgrade. It gets no major love until Beta, usually. If your goal is a working install of F18,
your
best option at present is a yum update from F17, following the directions at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_17_-.3E_Fedora_18 .
Oh, well that would be easier for me since it stays more in my familiar realm. (Preupgrade looks neat, but my norm is fresh installs
- puppet.) Should this wisdom (both waiting until Beta and that link)
be incorporated into https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Branched#Yum_update_from_previous_of...
Probably not. Actually I should have written that a bit differently: it's a *good* thing from a QA perspective that you're trying preupgrade now and finding the bugs. We want them found early. It's only a bad thing from the point of view that it has about 0% chance of succeeding. =) Even if you get the preupgrade bit working, I believe newUI anaconda does not actually implement upgrades yet, so there is no chance the anaconda bit of the process will work.
Nice to know, thanks. I'm having lots of fun seeing what it takes to get Fedora out the door since I'm making my own derived Live spins for internal company use on embedded systems. I face many of the same challenges.
Cool. Let us know if you find any QA process documentation missing - I think we cover it pretty well though :)
From: Adam Williamson awilliam@redhat.com
This is probably a terrible time to try preupgrade. It gets no major love until Beta, usually. If your goal is a working install of F18,
your
best option at present is a yum update from F17, following the directions at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_17_-.3E_Fedora_18 .
Oh, well that would be easier for me since it stays more in my familiar realm. (Preupgrade looks neat, but my norm is fresh installs
- puppet.) Should this wisdom (both waiting until Beta and that link)
be incorporated into https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/
Branched#Yum_update_from_previous_official_release?
Probably not. Actually I should have written that a bit differently: it's a *good* thing from a QA perspective that you're trying preupgrade now and finding the bugs. We want them found early. It's only a bad thing from the point of view that it has about 0% chance of succeeding. =) Even if you get the preupgrade bit working, I believe newUI anaconda does not actually implement upgrades yet, so there is no chance the anaconda bit of the process will work.
Cool. Let us know if you find any QA process documentation missing - I think we cover it pretty well though :)
It is covered pretty well. For some reason though, when I first sought out pages telling me how to get on rawhide (because 18 hadn't been branched just yet), I never stumbled onto the Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum page. I mostly got a rawhide box based on intuition, but that page clearly documents some things I hadn't thought about. My suggestion for incorporating this link into the Releases/Branched page was primarily based on the impression that the former covered that specific topic more thoroughly. Thus I kind of envisioned something akin to:
""" Yum update from previous official release This method is available but generally not recommended. Anaconda can make changes that are outside what the packaging system can normally deal with. You may also run into dependency problems which could take time to untangle. You may also need to upgrade from the immediately previous release (e.g. install Fedora 12, then Fedora 14 Branched, not jump directly from Fedora 12 to Fedora 14 Branched). Be prepared to wipe your system and re-install from scratch if things do not go well.
If you decide to go this route anyway, please see http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum """
Also, that paragraph is just plain confusing (to me, at least). After trying to parse it for a while, I think it's trying to say: You may *first* need to upgrade *to* the immediately previous release (e.g. install/upgrade to Fedora *13*, then Fedora 14 Branched, not jump directly from Fedora 12 to Fedora 14 Branched).
-- John Florian Machine Data Collections Team
On Wed, 2012-08-15 at 17:29 -0400, John.Florian@dart.biz wrote:
From: Adam Williamson awilliam@redhat.com
This is probably a terrible time to try preupgrade. It gets no
major
love until Beta, usually. If your goal is a working install of
F18,
your
best option at present is a yum update from F17, following the directions at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum#Fedora_17_-.3E_Fedora_18 .
Oh, well that would be easier for me since it stays more in my familiar realm. (Preupgrade looks neat, but my norm is fresh
installs
- puppet.) Should this wisdom (both waiting until Beta and that
link)
be incorporated into https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/
Branched#Yum_update_from_previous_official_release?
Probably not. Actually I should have written that a bit differently: it's a *good* thing from a QA perspective that you're trying
preupgrade
now and finding the bugs. We want them found early. It's only a bad thing from the point of view that it has about 0% chance of
succeeding.
=) Even if you get the preupgrade bit working, I believe newUI
anaconda
does not actually implement upgrades yet, so there is no chance the anaconda bit of the process will work.
Cool. Let us know if you find any QA process documentation missing -
I
think we cover it pretty well though :)
It is covered pretty well. For some reason though, when I first sought out pages telling me how to get on rawhide (because 18 hadn't been branched just yet), I never stumbled onto the Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum page. I mostly got a rawhide box based on intuition, but that page clearly documents some things I hadn't thought about. My suggestion for incorporating this link into the Releases/Branched page was primarily based on the impression that the former covered that specific topic more thoroughly. Thus I kind of envisioned something akin to:
""" Yum update from previous official release This method is available but generally not recommended. Anaconda can make changes that are outside what the packaging system can normally deal with. You may also run into dependency problems which could take time to untangle. You may also need to upgrade from the immediately previous release (e.g. install Fedora 12, then Fedora 14 Branched, not jump directly from Fedora 12 to Fedora 14 Branched). Be prepared to wipe your system and re-install from scratch if things do not go well.
If you decide to go this route anyway, please see http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum """
Also, that paragraph is just plain confusing (to me, at least). After trying to parse it for a while, I think it's trying to say: You may *first* need to upgrade *to* the immediately previous release (e.g. install/upgrade to Fedora *13*, then Fedora 14 Branched, not jump directly from Fedora 12 to Fedora 14 Branched).
Thanks for the feedback. I actually recently revised some very similar text on the Releases/Rawhide page; I hope it's clearer now (please do take a look and let me know what you think). I'll try and find a few minutes to apply similar changes to the Releases/Branched page - I wasn't aware it had similar text. Thanks!