update LinuxPPC from YDL RPMs?

[nathan r. hruby]

On Mon, 30 Dec 2002, Allan Streib wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have LinuxPPC 2000 Q4 running on a PowerMac 6500, with yaboot working
> (no Mac OS partition at all) and I lost my notes on how exactly I got this
> to work, although I remember it being a PITA.  Is it possible to update
> this installation with the latest YDL RPMs or would I need to install YDL
> from scratch?
> 

To use the YDL installer you need to install from scratch, sorry.  

Were you a brave soul with a good backup AND RESTORE device you might be
able to shoehorn enough of the critical RPMS (rpm, *libc*, db*, XFree*,
glib*, python*, kernel*, etc for starters) into your system from the CD to
get it to boot with a YDL kernel (and libs) and then use apt to finsh the
upgrade.

This of course is highly theoretical, dangerous and probably dumb.  If you
were to look back at the archives for this list concerning upgrades
(1.2->2.0, 2.1->2.3, most of the apt threards) you should get a pretty 
good idea of what you'll need to upgrade in one shot (it'll be a huge 
delta) and what some of the pitfalls are.  

I'm not sure it's a resonable amount of work for a 6500, espically when
you can buy a a new g3 with YDL preinstalled from the TerraSoft folks for
less than $900, or find a slightly better machine on ebay for less than
that.  Hell if you live in Georgia, keep an eye out on the State Surplus
Property Aution page.  There will be some 8500's on there soon :)  You can 
always just get an old external SCSI HDD and install into that and just 
ignore the LinuxPPC stuff on the internal drives too.

HTH,

-n
-- 
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nathan hruby <nathan@drama.uga.edu>
computer services specialist
uga drama
http://www.drama.uga.edu/support/
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