Re: migration

[Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>]

charles@lunargraphics.net said:
> what is the easiest way to migrate an
> existing non-rpm based linux distro over to redhat, or one that 
> is redhat based?

Create the Red Hat-style directory structure.  (Symlink /var/adm to
/var/log and stuff like that.  Do "rpm -ql filesystem" on a Red Hat
box and make sure all those directories exist.)  Install rpm, either
from source or binaries from ftp.redhat.com.  Do "rpm --initdb".  Just
to make sure you don't get dependency errors from *every* package you
try to install, do "rpm -ivh --justdb" on the filesystem, setup,
rootfiles, and other such rpms.  (That will just mark those packages
as being installed in the database without actually touching the
filesystem.)  Then, install the glibc rpms, the other library rpms,
the bash rpm, the initscripts rpm, and any of the "core" stuff.  Make
sure you come as close as possible to satisfying all dependencies at
this point.  Then install all the other stuff you need.  Try to
satisfy the dependencies as best you can, but use --nodeps when
installing if you have to.

At some point, run netcfg, timeconfig, ntsysv, and some of the other
Red Hat tools to verify your setup is still more-or-less consistent.
Somewhere around here, you'll probably want to try to reboot the
system *at the console*.  It's *very* likely that it'll be screwed up,
but at least at the console you should be able to boot to single-user
mode to fix things enough that you can boot.

Eventually, you'll have something that looks enough like Red Hat that
you can start the install and do an "upgrade", which should take care
of most other issues.  You'll still have lots of filesystem cruft from
Slackware at that point, but at least you can simply "rpm -qf"
anything you think you don't need to find out if you are right...  :-)

Steve
-- 
steve@silug.org           | Linux Users of Central Illinois
(217)698-1694             | Meetings the 4th Tuesday of every month
Steven Pritchard          | http://www.luci.org/ for more info

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