Mageia forum

is there any way to upgrade using torrents?
I don't want to tie up my internet connection for several hours

Garthh,

I think it has no upgrade online with torrent (as reported here) (but there are "torrent" to download DVD and liveCD here)

The upgrade online always has a chance to fail, because of failure to download any package (because of a problem with internet access for example)

I think it's best to do a clean install.

I opened a topic here on the forum and on bugzilla to discuss the need for more clarity as to the risks of online update:

Upgrade online Mageia 1 to 2 - unclear - need to improve
by macxi » May 24th, '12, 05:23 in Ideas and suggestions
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2506

Bug 6068 - The texts of the dialog windows of Mageia Upgrade are not clear enough (macxi)
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6068

And Alejandro Lopez opened a bug report also:

Bug 6086 - Avoid blocking the upgrade when errors occur
https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6086

Note: corrected (in red) after the comment of doktor5000

Garthhh wrote:is there any way to upgrade using torrents?
I don't want to tie up my internet connection for several hours

Huh? Could you please clarify what you want, in a more detailed way?
You can download the DVD via torrent and then upgrade with that one.

Also torrent's don't remove the need for downloading things, it's just another way to download.
Doesn't matter if you download data via torrent or any other downloader, and it does make no difference in general.

About torrents: Torrents are for some of us the most reliable and restartable way to get large files.

What the Op really wants, i think, is to download only files needed, in an interruptable-restartable manner, and then in one snap do the upgrade.

Note that around 2 GB free space or so in / (or /var if you have such partition) is needed for a pretty normal KDE system!

First: change the repos

Code: Select all

urpmi.removemedia -a
urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://mirrors.mageia.org/api/mageia.2.$ARCH.list'

And then re-enable all repo types you had before (Nonfree, Tainted)

Then dry run updates so the packages will download to cache.

Code: Select all

urpmi --auto-update --test

That operation can be interrupted and restarted several times, and when all packages are down,
remove the --test part to perform actual upgrade, and it will use the already downloaded packages (plus download any newer if there is newer)

Code: Select all

urpmi --auto-update

EDIT:
i see the --replacefiles option is recommended, and it is also recommended to execute the upgrade at least twice; https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6121
Also see viewtopic.php?f=29&t=2542
/EDIT


I just did that, and... then restored the disk image i backed up just before due to too many problems - will do fresh install instead :/

A fresh install followed by migrating some old settings back is always the most clean, safe and fastest way.

doktor5000 wrote:A fresh install followed by migrating some old settings back is always the most clean, safe and fastest way.

Torrents as was pointed out tend to be more accurate

Yeah a clean install is the least likely to have any problems at the cost of several hours setting up... including the importing of the home folder contents
I suppose there's another way besides grinding it out, I can't say as I've seen any tutorial, that didn't require more time [learning curve]
that whole fun with partitions never seems to go well for me [your mileage may vary]


with the hints I found
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_2_Rel ... to_Upgrade
I can get the files on board [HDD space is not a concern]
seems like there should be a method without external media?

Garthhh wrote:I can get the files on board [HDD space is not a concern]
seems like there should be a method without external media?

Can you please explain what you mean? You can also install without creating a bootable media, you can install from harddisk to harddisk.

I can use a torrent to download the dvd file
once I have it, what would the rest of the steps be?

what do you mean hdd to hdd?

Garthhh wrote:I can use a torrent to download the dvd file
once I have it, what would the rest of the steps be?

what do you mean hdd to hdd?

It is possible to launch the installer from the hard drive (without using either USB or optical media). I don't see any instructions in the Mageia wiki, but you can use the Mandriva instructions (replacing Mandriva references with the appropriate Mageia references):

http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Instal ... nux_method

When the system boots, you can then, if you wish, use the DVD ISO as an installation source. The procedure to follow is the same as would be followed if you had burned the boot.iso file to a CD, booted using that and chosen Installation from Hard Disk:

https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Boot.iso_install

In order to use the DVD ISO as an installation source it is essential that it be located on a partition that will not be formatted during the installation.

Jim

I have 3 computers
2 pc's that are running Mageia 1 KDE, sometime between now & december that I need to migrate to M2. both are nearly identical in set up, one is a test box
Hopefully I know what I'm doing by the time I get to the production box I'll know what I'm doing

the 3rd computer is a Notebook running Ubun 10.10 gnome which is past it's support window
I want to install M2 directly

sounds like I need one more partition of maybe 10g
beyond that I need a bit more specific details
being a gnome box gparted shows me this

Well, where's your actual question?

Also, your current partitioning is quite detrimental. And if you don't want that Ubuntu anymore, why not let Mageia use the whole space? After you have done a backup, that is.
As a guideline, normally you use a /-Partition of say 15-20GB and a separate /home-partition which should be as big as possible, and a swap which should be 1.5 times the size of your RAM.

Apart from all that, with your current partitioning you can't have another partition, as all the space is allocated (well 1MB is free, but of no use).
So you need to provide some more details.

the ubuntu install is going to be clean
all the content [music pictures & documents]added later

actual questions
what should the partition be called?
what format?
where should it be located?
what size?

why is my current partitioning?
"Quite Detrimental"

Garthhh wrote:what should the partition be called?
what format?
where should it be located?
what size?

What do you mean by called? Normally partitions are referenced by their mount point, so you would have a / (root) and a /home partition. That's what they are called.
You can additionally use a label but that's quite useless for system partitions IMHO. Normally you only use a label for removable drives or so (like call an external harddisk EXTERNAL1 or so)
Format depends on your choice and the use case, but ext4 is a good choice and it's also the default.

What do you mean by located? Actually it's quite simple, in the Mageia installer just remove all your existing partitions if you are sure that you have all the data backed-up somewhere externally, and then just let the installer use the whole drive. Simple as that. You can also do custom partition, and create a / partition of 20GB, and then a swap partition of 12 GB and a /home partition which should take the rest of the available space.
If you still have question, please have a look at our documentation for that: http://docteam.mageia.nl/installer/cont ... Disks.html
About the size, 10GB should be the minimum for a desktop installation with graphical server, and swap 1.5 times the sizes of your RAM, and /home as much space as you can spare. But i've already written that in my previous post.

Garthhh wrote:why is my current partitioning?
"Quite Detrimental"

Well, did you actually read my previous post where i tried to explain that? Which part didn't you understand?
F.ex. if you would have used my proposed partitioning for your Ubuntu install, you would now only have to format the / partition, but keep the /home partition with all your data and settings, and wouldn't have to add all the data later on again, and don't have to care for a backup before reinstalling.