version numbers and other Qs about the gui update tool

Joel rees at ddcom.co.jp
Tue Apr 12 02:03:16 UTC 2005


> > Hmm. When you recompile your kernel, which do you start with?
> > 
> > My memory with openbsd, for instance, is that you compile the kernel
> > first and then userland. Will that be different for Fedora Core?
> 
> Perhaps we're misunderstanding each other.

Nope. Not at all. Just wanted to know the difference, which you explained
pretty well below.

> You probably want to look for 
> something like "Linux from scratch" to understand how a fresh system is 
> built from the ground up.
> 
> What I was writing about was the order in which you would apply 
> pre-built updates. Major new kernel versions tend to move some 
> functionality out to user-space processes, and need those processes (e.g 
> modutils) to be installed on the target system before the kernel can run 
> properly. So you would typically update modutils first before trying a 
> new kernel. These dependencies are handled well by rpm though, so if 
> you're installing RPMs and not using --force or --nodeps options, you 
> should be OK updating things in whatever order you like - rpm won't let 
> you get the order wrong.
> 
> > Thanks, Paul. Ripped out four old kernels, left the last two. (It was
> > only six updates, after all.) Now my root partition is down to 40% of
> > 500MB. 
> > 
> > du shows /lib contains about 100MB.
> 
> Sounds reasonable. Most of that is probably in /lib/modules

True.

> > I've got an /altroot partition that I just set up for grins. Is there a
> > pointer somewhere to instructions for actually using it?
> 
> Perhaps; I've never heard of it.

Dedicated partition for the kernel backups.

If /altroot isn't particularly used in rh, I could clean it, copy
/lib/modules to it, and change the mounting so it mounts under
/lib/modules, I suppose. But it sounds like just dedicating a full
gigabyte (or more on really large drives) to the root partition would be
just as effective or more so, next time around.

> > And is there something that should be done with the approximately 833MB
> > in /var/spool/up2date ? Or is that something I just live with and keep
> > an eye on, being careful not to update too many things at once?
> 
> Do you use up2date or yum? I'm not saying one's better than the other 
> but there's no need to use both. So, if you're going to use yum then you 
> could clear out the downloaded packages from /var/spool/up2date:
> 
> # rm -f /var/spool/up2date/*.rpm
> 
> Leaving the headers there is probably a sane thing to do so that you can 
> keep the up2date applet running on your desktop and see when new updates 
> are ready to install (even if you're going to use yum to install them).

That's what I've done in the past -- watched the applet, updated in a
virtual terminal with yum. I was just lazy enough this time to update
directly from the applet.

So, for next time around, I should also give /var 4G or more, I think.
And for the present, I should avoid waiting so long between updates, or
if I do, update X and the fonts first, and then update Open Office after,
cleaning the cache between.

(Or start getting rid of apps I don't use.)

Thanks again.

--
Joel Rees   <rees at ddcom.co.jp>
digitcom, inc.   株式会社デジコム
Kobe, Japan   +81-78-672-8800
** <http://www.ddcom.co.jp> **




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