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RedHat Fedora: Fedora 8 to Fedora 9 upgrade.

The Fedora 8 to Fedora 9 upgrade follows the general procedure outlined on the very first Fedora Core upgrade page:

RedHat Fedora: Fedora Core 1 to Fedora Core 2 Upgrade .  If you have not already upgraded to F8 please visit  RedHat Fedora: Fedora 7 to Fedora 8 upgrade. page first before going up to FC9.

You will only need to replace step 8 ) with the below step:

8 ) Install fedora-relese either using the RPM’s in step 2) below or use another mirror from the fedora.redhat.com site.  You can also use the mirrors from fedoralegacy.org if your distribution is too old.

Upgrading to Fedora 9 is straightforward, in theory, and follows only a few basic steps below however there are some considerations which you may wish to review.  If you're feeling lucky, you can just skip to THE BASIC STEPS further down.

CONSIDERATIONS


Because Fedora 9 is a new release, it’s probably advisable to check if you ‘really’ want to upgrade.    One thing to do is check ‘ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/Schedule#Post-release‘ for release notes and dates.  If you are dependent on your Linux distribution for any amount of job/home related work, you might want to wait for the FINAL or official version AND possibly even for a bug fix be rolled out.  One big change to note is that we will move from KDE 3.X to KDE 4.  As with any X.0 versions of software, tendency is that they will be buggy and is a risk you need to weight.  Per the site above, it looks like Fedora 9 is ready for release.  We see the latest Post-release updates are also done on:

“30 May 2008      fedora-release-notes package update”

It seams we are good to go and there seams to be even a patch release per above.  The procedure is therefore the same.

NOTE: Since my own upgrade to Fedora 9, I have seen plenty of changes and problems, the bulk of which is with KDE 4.0.  However recently KDE 4.1 was released with addressed a set of problems though others still persist.  To date there may likely be some problems you may face after the upgrade.  Here is a couple of links to help you decide if upgrading is the right choice for you:

Fedora 9 and KDE 4.x: Problems starting applications due to xorg-x11-xfs
Acrobat Reader on Fedora 9: Seamingly never ending list of or non stop continous “expr: syntax error”

RPM unable to uninstall RPM’s: scriptlet failed, exit status 1
KDE 4.X and Fedora 9: Problems starting xserver after changing video settings.
KDE 4.X and Fedora 9: The taskbar is gone.

What changes to expect can be viewed from this great article.

In addition to the above, the KDE 4.0 appeared very unyieldly to me and not nearly as configurable as it’s predecessor KDE 3.5.X versions were.  So much so that most functionality you may have been used to, is now either disabled or not there at all, even simple things like resizing the taskbar can’t be done by drag and drop and I wasn’t able to figure out how to enable it.  Your mileage may vary.  Though this is not a show stopper for me as I’ve adjusted to using KDE 4.0’s new features, it may be a more serious issue for some.

 

THE BASIC STEPS


1) nice -n 19 yum update
2) cd /some/dir
3) mkdir ./F8toF9
4) cd ./F8toF9
5) nice -n 19 yum -y upgrade
6) nice -n 19 yum clean all
7) nice -n 19 yum clean all (Just to make sure)
8 ) wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/Packages/fedora-release-notes-9.0.0-1.noarch.rpm
9) wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/Packages/fedora-release-9-2.noarch.rpm
10) rpm -Uvh fedora-release*.rpm
11) cat /etc/fedora-release  (Make sure ‘Fedora release 9 (Sulphur)‘ appears )
12) nice -n 19 yum -y upgrade 2>&1|tee ./Fedora-8-upgrade.June.29.2008.02.00.PM.txt
13) Refer below for any issues and repeat step 12) as necessary.

NOTE: You can forgo the use of ‘nice‘ alltogether but would recommend it if you still want to use your system for other porposes, while upgrading, without incuring a significant slowdown due to the upgrade.

 

UPGRADING


1) Ensure your Fedora 8 is up to date by running ‘nice -n 19 yum update‘.

2) Again we start off by making some work folder for all the files and notes we will take on the upgrade process:

$ cd /some/dir
$ mkdir ./F8toF9
$ cd ./F8toF9
$ nice -n 19 yum -y upgrade
(Current version – we have not yet installed the release rpm)
.
.
.
No Packages marked for Update
$

Nothing was noted for update.  Then:

$ nice -n 19 yum clean all
.
.
.
.

The above removed a bunch of packages again as it did from Fedora 7 to Fedora 8 upgrade.  Ran it second time to get:

$ nice -n 19 yum clean all
Yum Version: 3.2.8
COMMAND: yum clean all
Installroot: /
Ext Commands:

all
Cleaning up Everything
$

Meaning my system is now clean.  I followed the above by installing the Fedora 9 releases:

$ wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/Packages/fedora-release-notes-9.0.0-1.noarch.rpm
$ wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/Packages/fedora-release-9-2.noarch.rpm
$ rpm -Uvh fedora-release*.rpm


$ cat /etc/fedora-release
Fedora release 9 (Sulphur)
$

3) Next we start the actual upgrade process.  As before, this will tell us any missing dependencies we have which we’ll need to resolve prior to completing the upgrade:

$ nice -n 19 yum -y upgrade 2>&1|tee ./Fedora-8-upgrade.June.29.2008.02.00.PM.txt . . Error: Missing Dependency: tcl-devel = 1:8.5.1 is needed by package tk-devel Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap.so.2 is needed by package nvi-m17n-nocanna Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap.so.2 is needed by package ckermit Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap.so.2 is needed by package nvi-m17n-canna Error: Missing Dependency: libssl.so.6 is needed by package ckermit Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap is needed by package compat-slang Error: Missing Dependency: libkdecorations.so.1 is needed by package deKorator Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap.so.2 is needed by package cdecl Error: Missing Dependency: perl(:MODULE_COMPAT_5.8.6) is needed by package perl-XML-Encoding Error: Missing Dependency: libcrypto.so.6 is needed by package ckermit Error: Missing Dependency: tcl = 1:8.5.1 is needed by package tk $

I then decided to download the missing packages.  For a hint of what to get, check  ‘./Fedora-8-upgrade.June.29.2008.02.00.PM.txt‘ above that you generated part from the update step:

As I checked ./Fedora-8-upgrade.June.29.2008.02.00.PM.txt, I noticed that there are two versions of tcl-devel but only one of tk-devel

.
.
tk-devel requires: tcl-devel = 1:8.5.1
Processing Dependency: tcl-devel = 1:8.5.1 for package: tk-devel
Searching pkgSack for dep: tcl-devel
skipping reposetup, pkgsack exists
.
.
Potential match for tcl-devel from tcl-devel – 1:8.5.1-4.fc9.i386
Matched tcl-devel – 1:8.5.1-4.fc9.i386 to require for tcl-devel
Potential match for tcl-devel from tcl-devel – 1:8.5.2-2.fc9.i386
Potential resolving package tcl-devel – 1:8.5.1-4.fc9.i386 has newer instance in ts.
.
.

yum found 8.5.2-2.fc9.i386 but only choose the 8.5.1-4 version suitable for the upgrade.  As I checked the various repos online, I notice that:

tcl-devel-8.5.2-2.fc9.i386.rpm
tcl-devel-8.5.1-4.fc9.i386.rpm

but only one for tk-devel:

tk-devel-8.5.1-4.fc9.i386.rpm

I checked ‘http://rpmfind.net‘ online to see what are the current versions available.  The same case was true when I checked: many of the packages did not have the same versions.  I had enough fun for the day and decided to look into this problem later.  The next day, I checked with ‘cat /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates.repo‘:

.
.
mirrorlist=http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=updates-released-f$releasever&arch=$basearch
.
.

I replaced the above with:

http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=updates-released-f9&arch=i386

to check which repositories it is accessing.  I checked some of them and now ‘tk-devel‘ also came in 8.5.2-2‘ version as well!  On one of the sites listed by above command ( http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/fedora/linux/updates/9/i386) I see:

tcl-8.5.2-2.fc9.i386.rpm    2008-Jun-27 23:06:53    2.1M    application/octet-stream
tcl-devel-8.5.2-2.fc9.i386.rpm    2008-Jun-27 23:06:57    171.2K    application/octet-stream

telling me that that package was actively being updated at the time when I was having these issues above.  I rerun the upgrade with

$ nice -n 19 yum -y upgrade 2>&1|tee ./Fedora-9-upgrade.June.30.2008.02.00.PM.txt

This time no issues from

tk-devel

or

tcl-devel

Output of above command is below:

.
.
.
.

Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap.so.2 is needed by package nvi-m17n-nocanna
Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap.so.2 is needed by package ckermit
Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap.so.2 is needed by package nvi-m17n-canna
Error: Missing Dependency: libssl.so.6 is needed by package ckermit
Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap is needed by package compat-slang
Error: Missing Dependency: libkdecorations.so.1 is needed by package deKorator
Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap.so.2 is needed by package cdecl
Error: Missing Dependency: perl(:MODULE_COMPAT_5.8.6) is needed by package perl-XML-Encoding
Error: Missing Dependency: libcrypto.so.6 is needed by package ckermit

Now I only have 9 dependencies left

$ rpm -q –whatprovides libtermcap.so.2
$ rpm -aq|grep nvi-m17n-nocanna

I see that both are installed on my system.  nvi-m17n-nocanna sounds vaguely familiar which probably means I installed it in the past at some point.  I check one of the mirrors: http://fedora.mirror.umoss.org/fedora/linux/updates/9/i386/.  The package nvi-m17n-nocanna doesn’t exist as a package in the repo list.  In this case, I have little choice but to remove nvi-m17n-nocanna.

$ rpm -e nvi-m17n-nocanna-1.79-20040401.23

I will reinstall it later if needed and available.  The same situation applies to ckermit.  It also turns out that ckermit was an older FC5 package that didn’t get removed.  The same situation applies to the following packages as well:

ckermit-8.0.211-5.fc5
compat-slang-1.4.9-27.2.2
deKorator-0.1-1fb
cdecl-2.5-30
perl-XML-Encoding-1.01-27

The next attempt gave me another missing dependency:

$ nice -n 19 yum -y upgrade 2>&1|tee ./Fedora-9-upgrade.July.4.2008.00.13.AM.txt
Error: Missing Dependency: libtermcap.so.2 is needed by package nvi-m17n-canna

I reran above upgrade after removing ‘nvi-m17n-canna‘.  This time no dependencies were listed:

$ nice -n 19 yum -y upgrade 2>&1|tee ./Fedora-9-upgrade.July.4.2008.01.23.AM.txt
.
.
Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install    199 Package(s)
Update    1859 Package(s)
Remove       1 Package(s)

Total download size: 2.9 G
Downloading Packages:
.
.
http://less.cogeco.net/ftp/fedora/linux/updates/9/i386/kdeedu-4.0.5-1.fc9.i386.rpm: [Errno 4] Socket Error: timed out
Trying other mirror.
.
.

timeout and a whopping 2.9 GB needs to be downloaded.  the timeout was due to my Cable Modem loosing it’s connection to my unnamed ISP.  I power cycled the Cable Modem and the installation continued after a few dozen of the above messages but failed anyway eventually.  Rerunning the upgrade produced a few of:

file /usr/share/man/man8/ftpd_selinux.8.gz from install of selinux-policy-3.3.1-74.fc9.noarch conflicts with file from package selinux-policy-strict-1.27.1-2.27.noarch

One possible solution to removing the selinux problem above is to remove some of the modules or all if you do not wish to use selinux

$ rpm -e –notriggers selinux-policy-strict-1.27.1-2.27

or for a more complete removal use:

$ rpm -e –notriggers –allmatches selinux-policy-strict

To remove I ran:

$ rpm -aq|grep selinux-policy-strict
selinux-policy-strict-1.27.1-2.27
$ rpm -e selinux-policy-strict-1.27.1-2.27

I then reran

$ nice -n 19 yum -y upgrade 2>&1|tee ./Fedora-9-upgrade.July.4.2008.10.32.PM.txt

This time the installation completed and I rebooted to Fedora 9.  However, there were problems, particularly with KDE 4.  As of the writing of this post, I reran ‘nice -n 19 yum -y upgrade‘ which listed some 240 packages to be updated since I upgraded to Fedora 9 two weeks ago.  This gives some clue as to the active community behind Fedora 9.  For the list of issues, use the top right search box for the issue you have.

CLEANING UP OLD PACKAGES


After doing this many upgrades (In this case From Fedore Core 1 to Fedora 9), you may want to remove some of the old packages you have had.

$ rpm -aq|grep fc4
skype-1.3.0.53-fc4
umb-scheme-3.2-39.fc4.1
cdicconf-0.2-11.1.fc4
iiimf-server-12.2-4.fc4.2
libfame-0.9.1-7.2.fc4
$ rpm -e skype-1.3.0.53-fc4
$ rpm -e umb-scheme-3.2-39.fc4.1
$ rpm -e cdicconf-0.2-11.1.fc4
$ rpm -e iiimf-server-12.2-4.fc4.2

userdel: user iiimd does not exist
error: %preun(iiimf-server-12.2-4.fc4.2.i386) scriptlet failed, exit status 6
$ rpm -e libfame-0.9.1-7.2.fc4
$

Repeat the above for FC1 through FC9 (Yes including the ‘C‘ in F7 to F9).  Once you are done with the upgrade, you may wish to visit Fedora 9 and KDE 4.x: Problems starting applications due to xorg-x11-xfs and remove this package if you run into any issues listed at the beginning of this article.

4 Responses to “RedHat Fedora: Fedora 8 to Fedora 9 upgrade.”

  1. […] Core 1 to Fedora Core 2 Upgrade .  If you have not already upgraded to F9 please visit RedHat Fedora: Fedora 8 to Fedora 9 upgrade. page first before going up to Fedora […]

  2. […] updated to use DBUS)  This particular change occurred more recently and prominantly between Fedora 8 to Fedora 9 upgrade discussed in another article here.  One of the issues to this problem is that in the process […]

  3. […] change as a result of an upgrade or update.  This is one issue I had when upgrading from Fedora 8 to Fedora 9 and was mostly due to extensive overhaul of the KDE 4.1/4.0 over it’s predecessor KDE […]

  4. […] used to my own configuration in KDE 3.X.  So much so I initially wasn’t too happy  upgrading from Fedora 8 to Fedora 9 entirely.  That is until I started to use and get used to some of it’s new features, […]

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