Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

KaYnemO · Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Moscow, Russia

Hi all. Loving puppy a lot here. Older notebook is alive and kicking. I am running 1.05 version. And again it's great and all. But, you see, I have an unctrollable urge to upgrade (should I??). Is there a painless way of doing so without having to reinstall all the software and tools? I am running of HD is the upgrade going to screw up all data on it? Just wondering...

edoc · Posted: Sun 05 Mar 2006, 18:19 Post subject: Re: Is upgrading Puppy worth it?

KaYnemO · Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Moscow, Russia

OK I am willing to try the upgrade. But how exactly to you go about it? Say I have downloaded the .iso from puppysite. What do I do after that? Installing the 1.05 to HD was not that easy actually. I am just afraid I am going to start with this thing and get tangled again in all of the troubles yet again, since running the distro from CD in my case is not a good idea (PII 64Mb RAM on a notebook with a HUGE detachable DVD/CD ROM).

rarsa · Posted: Mon 06 Mar 2006, 14:19 Post subject:

If puppy 1.0.5 meets your needs then the only reason I see for upgrading is that stronge urge of yours.

Upgrading puppy is never painless as it plays on the safe side removing all 'non registered' applications to avoid conflicts.

For example, If you are using JWM, whatever JWM configuration you have will be lost as the newer version is not backwards compatible with the previous configuration.

So, If you decide to upgrade, be prepared to start from scratch.

KaYnemO · Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Moscow, Russia

Thanks for the info. I think I am going to overlook the urge for now. Puppy is really doing all I need for now and I just cannot allow for it to crash and make me start from scratch. I will probably do it some other time.

rarsa · Posted: Tue 07 Mar 2006, 10:44 Post subject:

OH, one thing you CAN do is try the newer versions from the LiveCD to see if everything works as expected.

You could even
a) Create the pup001 file if you have a full HDD install
b) Create an alternate pup001 file if you currently boot from CD

so you could have the newest version alongside with the previous version.

That's one of the nice things about puppy that you are not constrained to what you have installed.

KaYnemO · Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Moscow, Russia

Hmm that sounds interesting. I just have to figure out how to do that. Could you provide the detailed info, perhaps? If it is not too much trouble.

rarsa · Posted: Tue 07 Mar 2006, 14:35 Post subject:

What is the partition configuration of your HDD? Do you have windows partitions? Does it only have Puppy?

If you have only one partition with a type 2 puppy HDD installation (Full hdd installation) you should be able to just put the LiveCD in and boot from there. It will create the pup001 file and start from scratch without affecting your existing installation.

KaYnemO · Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Moscow, Russia

Well my entire notebook is dedicated to t Puppy. I have two partitions, one of which is swap.

rarsa · Posted: Thu 09 Mar 2006, 11:07 Post subject:

Just boot with the liveCD. It will create a pup001 file without affecting anything on your current installation.

You will still be able to access everything stored on the HDD as it will be mounted as /mnt/home

KaYnemO · Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Moscow, Russia

All right, this seems like it is going to work. But will it allow me to boot from HD without CD? What will happen with all installed software? I am using a very old notebook with only 64 MbRAM, so right now it uses JWM as a window manager (am I totally off or does that sound right? I mean no KDE or Gnome or other fancy stuff). Will it remain the same? I am just worried I might upgrade it to the point where I would have to reinstall the whole thing back to 1.0.5 version just to be able to work it.

rarsa · Posted: Thu 09 Mar 2006, 14:57 Post subject:

I will reiterate.

If you just boot from the LiveCD, all the settings for that 'session' will be stored on the pup001 file. All the applications, configurations and settings on the HDD will remain unchanged.

KaYnemO · Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 25 Location: Moscow, Russia

I understand that, but if I like what I see, how would I go about installing it to HD keeping all my apps and files?

rarsa · Posted: Fri 10 Mar 2006, 10:55 Post subject:

Here is the balance if what will happen if you upgrade the HDD installation:

- You will need to reinstall most apps
- You will need to reconfigure video, network, and pretty much everything else you have already configured
- Your data files will remain intact as long as you didn't store them under /root/.usr or /root/.etc.

I don't think anyone has managed to find a way to seamlessly upgrade in Puppy. The best I've came up with is keeping a log of what I install and what I configure so I can easily repeat it every install.