Biting the bullet?

[Rolf Turner]

I have finally reached a stage where I may have to bite the bullet, 
grasp the nettle, screw my courage to the sticking place .... and 
upgrade my Fedora version.

I am currently running Fedora 17.  Which is of course antediluvian. But 
everything I have seen on this list with respect to upgrading terrifies 
me.  Disasters seem to lurk everywhere and I haven't the skills to cope 
with disasters.  Nor do I have access to any support in respect of Fedora.

So, if you will bear with me, I'd like to start off with a preliminary 
question:

The seeming necessity for upgrading arises from a pressing need to 
upgrade "R" to version 3.2.0.  When I try to build this version I get a 
load of error messages (basically coming from gcc I think) like unto:

> connections.o: In function `gzcon_write':
> /home/rolf/Desktop/Rinst/R-3.2.0/src/main/connections.c:5469: undefined reference to `deflate'


There were also complaints about undefined references to inflate, crc32, 
deflateEnd, inflateEnd, inflateReset, inflateInit2_, deflateInit2_, 
compress, uncompress, and zlibVersion, many of which were issued 
repeatedly.  It finally gave up, saying:

> collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

People from the R-help mailing list said that the problem lies in some 
"compression related" libs --- zlib, bzlib, liblzma.

I tried installing zlib and zlib-devel (using yum install) and was told 
in both cases that my system was up-to-date.  I tried installing bzlib 
and was told there was nothing by that name.  I then installed lzma and 
lzma-devel (*that* seemed to work) but it didn't help.  Same undefined 
references problems as before.

It was also suggested that I try building R-patched.  So I tried; no 
help there either.

So: Can anyone suggest what I can or should do to overcome this problem 
*without* having to upgrade?

Given that the answer to my preliminary question is "No", can anyone be 
so kind as to provide me with a *recipe* for upgrading, expressed in 
simple-minded terms that I can understand?  Something of the form:

(1) First, do this.

(2) Second, do something else.

(3) Third .....

You get the idea.  I'm afraid vague generalities would be of no help to 
me, since I am a bear of very little brain and long words bother me.

(I know that step (0) is to make a backup of all my user files.  Which I 
know how to do and will do.)

A specific question, I guess, is:  Do I use yum for such an upgrade?
(And if so, what is the syntax?) Or do I use fedup?  (And likewise, what 
is the syntax?)

If no-one wants to write out a set of instructions for me (and 
admittedly I can see that they may well not want to) can someone point 
me at such a set of instructions somewhere on the web?  Again, they 
would have to be expressed in a very simple-minded way.  ("Upgrading 
Fedora for Dummies".)

Everlastingly grateful for any help that anyone can extend.

cheers,

Rolf Turner

-
Technical Editor ANZJS
Department of Statistics
University of Auckland
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