Before upgrading, copy the old configuration files to a separate medium (such as removable hard disk or USB flash drive) to secure the data. This primarily applies to files stored in /etc as well as some of the directories and files in /var. You may also want to write the user data in /home (the HOME directories) to a backup medium. Back up this data as root. Only root has read permission for all local files.

Before starting your update, make note of the root partition. The command df / lists the device name of the root partition. In Example 15.1, “List with df -h”, the root partition to write down is /dev/sda3 (mounted as /).

Filesystem     Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3       74G   22G   53G  29% /
udev           252M  124K  252M   1% /dev
/dev/sda5      116G  5.8G  111G   5% /home
/dev/sda1       39G  1.6G   37G   4% /windows/C
/dev/sda2      4.6G  2.6G  2.1G  57% /windows/D

If you upgrade a default system from the previous version to this version, YaST works out the necessary changes and performs them. Depending on your customizations, some steps (or the entire upgrade procedure) may fail and you must resort to copying back your backup data. Check the following issues before starting the system update.

Following the preparation procedure outlined in Section 15.1.1, “Preparations”, you can now upgrade your system:

Once the basic upgrade installation is finished, YaST reboots the system. Finally, YaST updates the remaining software, if any and displays the release notes, if wanted.

With the zypper command line utility you can upgrade to the next version of the distribution. Most importantly, you can initiate the system upgrade process from within the running system.

This feature is attractive for advanced users who want to run remote upgrades or upgrades on many similarly configured systems. Inexperienced users will prefer the upgrade with YaST using a boot medium as described in Section 15.1.3, “Upgrading with YaST”.

15.1.4.2. The Upgrade Procedure¶

	Check Your System Backup
Before actually starting the upgrade procedure, check that your system backup is up-to-date and restorable. This is especially important because you must enter many of the following steps manually.

1. Run the online update to make sure the software management stack is up-to-date. For more information, see Chapter 5, YaST Online Update.

2. Configure the repositories you want to use as an update source. Getting this right is essential. Either use YaST (see Section 4.4, “Managing Software Repositories and Services”) or zypper (see Section 8.1, “Using Zypper”). The name of the repositories as used in the following steps could vary a little bit depending on your customizations.

   To view your current repositories enter:

   zypper lr -u
   

   	zypper command names
   zypper supports long and short command names. For example, you can abbreviate zypper install as zypper in. In the following text, the short variant is used.

   1. Increase the version number of the system repositories from 11.3 to 11.4; add the new 11.4 repositories with commands such as:

      server=http://download.opensuse.org
      new_ver=11.4
      zypper ar $server/distribution/$new_ver/repo/oss/ openSUSE-$new_ver-Oss
      zypper ar $server/update/$new_ver/ openSUSE-$new_ver-Update
      

      And remove the old repositories:

      old_ver=11.3
      zypper rr openSUSE-$old_ver-Oss
      zypper rr openSUSE-$old_ver-Update
      

   2. Disable third party repositories or other openSUSE Build Service repositories, because zypper dup is guaranteed to work with the default repositories only (replace repo-alias with the name of the repository you want to disable):

      zypper mr -d repo-alias
      

      Alternatively, you can lower the priority of these repositories.

      	Handling of Unresolved Dependencies
      zypper dup will remove all packages having unresolved dependencies, but it keeps packages of disabled repositories as long as their dependencies are satisfied.

      zypper dup ensures that all installed packages come from one of the available repositories. It does not consider the version, architecture, or vendor of the installed packages; thus it emulates a fresh installation. Packages that are no longer available in the repositories are considered orphaned. Such packages get uninstalled if their dependencies can not be satisfied. If they can be satisfied, such packages stay installed.

   3. Once done, check your repository configuration with:

      zypper lr -d
      

3. Refresh local metadata and repository contents with zypper ref.

4. Pull in zypper and the package management stack from the 11.4 repository with zypper up zypper.

5. Run the actual distribution upgrade with zypper dup. You are asked to confirm the license.

6. Perform basic system configuration with SuSEconfig.

7. Reboot the system with shutdown -r now.

Regardless of your overall updated environment, you can always update individual packages. From this point on, however, it is your responsibility to ensure that your system remains consistent.

Use the YaST software management tool to update packages as described in Chapter 4, Installing or Removing Software. Select components from the YaST package selection list according to your needs. If a newer version of a package exists, the version numbers of the installed and the available versions are listed in blue color in the Installed (Available) column. If you select a package essential for the overall operation of the system, YaST issues a warning. Such packages should be updated only in the update mode. For example, many packages contain shared libraries. Updating these programs and applications in the running system may lead to system instability.