Can I migrate over from Red Hat Linux 9?

OldBox · #1 2nd August 2008, 07:35 PM

Hello,

I currently have Red Hat Linux 9 installed. This is my computer with relatively ancient hardware and software by today's standards, but I'm comfortable with it. But to be able to get updates again, I probably need to migrate it over to Fedora Core. I want to avoid having to install from scratch. Is that possible? Thanks in advance to anyone who could offer advice.

I currently am using GNU-Linux kernel 2.4.20-8, on a Pentium 3 machine.

tho.mei · #2 2nd August 2008, 08:12 PM

Hallo OldBox

it depends on:
- how old your hardware is (RAM is most a limiting factor)
- if you need to migrate a lot of services (Samba, Mail-Server, ect.)
- if you need special software (May some projects are not hacking any more)

Yes, it will work in a way. But a clean install will be the easier way.

May your "ancient hardware" is to slow for Fedora 9. It would be the best to use CentOS 5.0. It gonna be supported until Mar 31st 2014. So you will not need to migrate until then again. Fedora 10, 11, 12... won't work any way, if Fedora 9 does use to much resources. CentOS 5 is based on Fedora 6 (or it is RHEL5).

To migrate, I advice you to do a clean new, installation of CentOS5. Update the /home, /root, /ect and /var on RdeHat9. (Don't forget the hidden settings in /home/username ) May you will, after the new installation overwrite some configurations files in /etc or in the /hone/username/.* with the backuped. It will save lot of configuration time. But do it only if you need it.

May there are other ways to migrate. Someone else will may write it down in this thread. But the clean install will be the best way.

Chilly Willy · #3 2nd August 2008, 08:43 PM

If this helps...
I am running F9 on a PIII 667MHz with 416M ram & it runs fine - at least adequate for MY needs (faster than XP anyway)

But please be aware (if you are not already) that with fedora you will be doing more "fixing" & dealing with (putting up with) BUGS. - so even though centOS isn't the "leading edge" it SHOULD be virtually "bug free". (if that is what you want)

OldBox · #4 2nd August 2008, 09:01 PM

Thank you! I've heard a little about Centos. It has the same code as RHEL, but doesn't come with official support from Red Hat. But that's ok, I don't need that because it's only for my personal desktop. I have 128 MB of ram, so that should be enough. I had 256 MB but the lightning storm fried one of the ram sticks just this morning. But anyway, I'll just back up those directories like you said, and prepare to upgrade.

OldBox · #5 2nd August 2008, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chilly Willy

If this helps...
I am running F9 on a PIII 667MHz with 466M ram & it runs fine - at least adequate for MY needs (faster than XP anyway)

But please be aware (if you are not already) that with fedora you will be doing more "fixing" & dealing with (putting up with) BUGS. - so even though centOS isn't the "leading edge" it SHOULD be virtually "bug free". (if that is what you want)

Ok, I understand. Centos is the same as RHEL, and Fedora is used as a test bed for RHEL. I might go with Centos instead if that's more stable

Oh, and I have a Pentium 3 "Coppermine" at 450 MHz, so that's probably fast enough.

Nokia · #6 2nd August 2008, 09:23 PM

AFAIK, Gnome will not run under 256 MB ram, and all things considered, you should try XFCE on that box.

tho.mei · #7 2nd August 2008, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Pentium 3 "Coppermine" at 450 MHz, 128 MB of ram

It won't be a fast system. 128 MB is not a lot. CentOS5 will work. But do not expect any speed marvel...

I've a PIII-Box 450MHz with 704MB RAM running on CentOS 5.0. It runs well as fileserver. It runs in runlevel 3. (No GUI) If I start KDE, it works. But it is relay slow.

Good luck!

ppesci · #8 2nd August 2008, 09:27 PM

But 128 MB RAM is little memory for a Desktop machine, if you want to use GNOME or KDE. Maybe you want to check in the CentOS home page the machine minimal requirements, only to be sure. If you can buy more ram, you will run much faster.

HTH

zackf · #9 5th August 2008, 03:40 AM

This is only personal experience, but I definitely go with CentOS on production boxes obviously for the stability and longer term updates, but Fedora on my personal stuff because there's a lot of neat stuff for it and this is probably the most useful forum for linux so it's easy to learn new stuff.

tho.mei · #10 5th August 2008, 05:06 PM

Hallo zackf

Quote:

... but Fedora on my personal stuff because there's a lot of neat stuff for it

You can often use Fedora Packages in CentOS. So this can't be the reason. (Nearly all apps for Fedora (from fedoraproject and livna) you can get for CentOS to.

The actually Fedora uses normally newer versions of the apps. Thats the only reason for Fedora is self!

Quote:

this is probably the most useful forum for linux so it's easy to learn new stuff.

May it is!
But if you use CentOS you can still ask the Feorda-Forum, because the differences between Fedora, RHEL and CentOS (of the equal versions) are insignificant. Fedora Core 6 = RHEL 5.x = CentOS 5.x

On an old box you can nearly freeze the level of FC6 when installing CentOS 5.0 until 2014. And it does not lack on security like a Fedora 6 system would.