Newbie trying FC5 to FC8 upgrade

[nikus1]

Only introduced to Linux/Fedora around 2 weeks ago when I saw it running a friends machine so I got a disk copy of FC5 to try it out.

I'm impressed. I can do almost everything I want on FC5 with the exception of establishing a VPN to a remote server. Helpful links/tutorials for a Linux newbie on this one would be appreciated?
I've decided to experiment further and install the latest version Fedora which I believe is FC8 onto my harddrive.

I used Bit Torrent to download the FC8 DVD ISO and after testing it seemed to be fine. However before booting to upgrade I foolishly played around with fdisk and seem to have corrupted my disk partitions or my drive labelling.

I can run FC5 booting form my harddisk.
I can run FC8 booting from a FC8 Live CD.
but,
I can't install FC8 onto my harddisk from either DVD ISO or Live CD even though my system can boot up from both these sources OK. Possibly a disk partitioning or drive labelling issue?

OK. There's the intro. Here are the questions:

1. Was I stupid to try and ungrade as opposed to going for a clean FC8 install?

2. Is there a 'dumbed down for newbies' guide as to the drive layout that FC8 needs? Is it significantly different from FC5?

3. Can I download a boot disk from somewhere that can guide me through the partitioning process and allow me reformat my harddisk for FC8? (I can completely reformat if necessary because Windows can go and data of value has been backed up.)

Hope I'm asking the right questions here and apologies in advance if there are varying degrees of cross posting in this tread. Please be patient with this new convert. Any help gratefully received.:-)

[glennzo]

Originally Posted by nikus1

Only introduced to Linux/Fedora around 2 weeks ago when I saw it running a friends machine so I got a disk copy of FC5 to try it out.

I'm impressed. I can do almost everything I want on FC5 with the exception of establishing a VPN to a remote server. Helpful links/tutorials for a Linux newbie on this one would be appreciated?
I've decided to experiment further and install the latest version Fedora which I believe is FC8 onto my harddrive.

I used Bit Torrent to download the FC8 DVD ISO and after testing it seemed to be fine. However before booting to upgrade I foolishly played around with fdisk and seem to have corrupted my disk partitions or my drive labelling.

I can run FC5 booting form my harddisk.
I can run FC8 booting from a FC8 Live CD.
but,
I can't install FC8 onto my harddisk from either DVD ISO or Live CD even though my system can boot up from both these sources OK. Possibly a disk partitioning or drive labelling issue?

OK. There's the intro. Here are the questions:

1. Was I stupid to try and ungrade as opposed to going for a clean FC8 install?
Upgrading is not recommended. A clean install is the preferred method.

2. Is there a 'dumbed down for newbies' guide as to the drive layout that FC8 needs? Is it significantly different from FC5?
Let the Fedora installer create partitions. You could also create your own. If you're using the whole disk you need at least 1 EXT3 partition and 1 swap partition.

3. Can I download a boot disk from somewhere that can guide me through the partitioning process and allow me reformat my harddisk for FC8? (I can completely reformat if necessary because Windows can go and data of value has been backed up.) GParted is bootable and is a great disk partitioning tool. Download it from DistroWatch or SourceForge.

Hope I'm asking the right questions here and apologies in advance if there are varying degrees of cross posting in this tread. Please be patient with this new convert. Any help gratefully received.:-)

You're asking the right questions. You can probably get all the answers you need right here in this forum. One step at a time.

[Dan]

1) Ayup!

2) Nope.

3) Glennzo's got you covered.


Please read this, with attention to the listed links. http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/sho...d.php?t=174492


Dan

[nikus1]

Thanks for your prompt reply Glennzo.

Here are my follow ups:

Seems a shame to get rid of FC5 after all the cool software I've downloaded to support it. Would it be really stupid to dualboot with FC5 + FC8? I guess it would be pointless but I'd like a third party opinion on that one.

Secondly, would you say FC8 is really worth having? Is there really that much more functionality and support over FC5?

To get a bit techie for a while can you enlighten me as to why FC8 doesn't want to recognise the Linux partitions/drives FC5 is happy to accept ? (A link to a tutorial here would be great here)

Finally, if some form of harddisk reformat is required before the clean F8 installation is GParted the best tool for that? Or, should I use fdiskor some other command from inside the FC5 terminal?

(As an aside I tried to Bit Torrent GParted earlier today but for some reason this was the first bit of software I haven't been able to successfully burn onto CD. The ISO image was there but my system didn't want to reboot.)

Again thanks for your help.

Nikus1

[glennzo]

Originally Posted by nikus1

Thanks for your prompt reply Glennzo.

Here are my follow ups:

Seems a shame to get rid of FC5 after all the cool software I've downloaded to support it. Would it be really stupid to dualboot with FC5 + FC8? I guess it would be pointless but I'd like a third party opinion on that one.

I don't see why you couldn't dual boot FC5 and Fedora 8 as long as you have the disk space and a spare partition for Fedora 8. They can share a swap partition no problem. I'd bet that you can get most, if not all of that 'cool' software for Fedora 8 also.

Originally Posted by nikus1

Secondly, would you say FC8 is really worth having? Is there really that much more functionality and support over FC5?

I would say that Fedora 8 is the best Fedora release to date and I'm sure thousands would agree with me. FC5 support is long dead. It doesn't even exist to my knowledge. You're wasting your time with FC5.

Originally Posted by nikus1

To get a bit techie for a while can you enlighten me as to why FC8 doesn't want to recognise the Linux partitions/drives FC5 is happy to accept ? (A link to a tutorial here would be great here)

I have no idea here. Sorry. But if you're going with a fresh install of Fedora 8 it doesn't matter. Wipe the disk and start anew.

Originally Posted by nikus1

Finally, if some form of harddisk reformat is required before the clean F8 installation is GParted the best tool for that? Or, should I use fdiskor some other command from inside the FC5 terminal?

If I was going to use fdisk from the command line I would boot to runlevel 1 and do it from there. GParted is generally an awesome partitioning utility.

Originally Posted by nikus1

(As an aside I tried to Bit Torrent GParted earlier today but for some reason this was the first bit of software I haven't been able to successfully burn onto CD. The ISO image was there but my system didn't want to reboot.)
Nikus1

How didn't it want to boot? There's several options from the GParted menu that you see when it first loads. Other than that, a hardware issue. Way too many variables to guess as to why it wouldn't boot.

[nikus1]

Great feedback Glennzo. Much appreciated. I'll most probably go for the clean FC8 install and dump FC5.

Re the Gparted thread what happens is the booting process starts from the LiveCD but then all I get is the message 'Loading Stage 2' at the top of the screen and everything hangs.

Any thoughts?

Nikus1

[glennzo]

Have you tried the different boot options offered?

[nikus1]

Sorry for the delay getting back Glennzo. Sunday's a long working day here. Sorted the problem with the Gparted download.

Simply a problem with the actual CD I was using. Second attempt at download/CDe burning was fine.

Thanks for all your assistance. Much appreciated. Going to start the fresh installation now.

Nikus1

[glennzo]

Originally Posted by nikus1

Sorry for the delay getting back Glennzo. Sunday's a long working day here. Sorted the problem with the Gparted download.

Simply a problem with the actual CD I was using. Second attempt at download/CDe burning was fine.

Thanks for all your assistance. Much appreciated. Going to start the fresh installation now.

Nikus1

You're welcome. Welcome to Fedora land and Happy Holidays.