Slackware 8.1 to 9.0 Upgrade HOWTO  <volkerdi@slackware.com>

This document explains how to upgrade from Slackware 8.1 to Slackware 9.0

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Before you begin, I would strongly recommend making a backup of your
system, or, if not the entire system, at least the /etc directory.  You
might find that you need to refer to a few things about the upgrade
process is complete. Back it up, or take your chances.

OK, now that everything is safely backed up, let's proceed. :-)

To do this, you'll need the Slackware 9.0 packages.  If these are on a CD,
create a new directory to mount the CD on so that it doesn't get in the
way during the upgrade:

mkdir /packages
mount /dev/cdrom /packages

The packages don't have to be on a CD-ROM, as an alternative you could
copy the slackware directory (the one with the various package
subdirectories in it, basically the "slackware" directory from the install
CD) to someplace like /root/slackware/.  The important thing is that you
know where the slackware packages directory is.  We'll use /root/slackware
in the following examples.

0.  Put your machine in single-user mode:
    telinit 1


1.  Upgrade your glibc shared libraries.  This is important, or things
    will go haywire during the first part of the upgrade:

    upgradepkg /root/slackware/a/glibc-solibs-*.tgz


2.  Upgrade your package utilities:

    upgradepkg /root/slackware/a/pkgtools-*.tgz


3.  Install sed.  This is used by the package utilities.

    installpkg /root/slackware/a/sed-*.tgz


4.  Upgrade everything else (and install new packages):

    upgradepkg --install-new /root/slackware/*/*.tgz


5.  Make sure your system will boot.  If you use LILO, make sure the
    paths in /etc/lilo.conf point to a valid kernel and then type 'lilo'
    to reinstall LILO.  If you use a bootdisk, you'll need to use
    makebootdisk to make a new bootdisk using the kernel in /boot.


6.  Fix your config files.  Some of the config files in /etc are going to 
    need your attention.  You'll find the new incoming config files on 
    your system with the ".new" extension.  You may need to fill these in 
    with information from your old config files and then move them over.


7.  Return to multi-user mode:
    telinit 3


Finally, you might want to go into /var/log/packages, and take a look at
the package list:

    ls -l | less

You may spot some old, obsolete, or discontinued packages.  If so, you
can remove these using 'removepkg'.


At this point you should be running Slackware 9.0.  :-)


I wish everyone good luck with this!

---
Patrick Volkerding
volkerdi@slackware.com