how to remote update 4.10 -> 5.3?

[Palle Girgensohn]

--On onsdag, december 29, 2004 13.01.10 -0800 Brooks Davis 
<brooks at one-eyed-alien.net> wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 29, 2004 at 09:49:10PM +0100, Palle Girgensohn wrote:
>>
>>
>> --On onsdag, december 29, 2004 12.36.01 -0800 Brooks Davis
>> <brooks at one-eyed-alien.net> wrote:
>>
>> > On Wed, Dec 29, 2004 at 09:30:37PM +0100, Palle Girgensohn wrote:
>> >> Has anyone managed to update a 4.10 system to 5.3 remotely, i.e.
>> >> without console access, and without spare disk partitions?
>> >>
>> >> I have a bunch of 4.10 machines that are too far away for me to
>> >> actually do  the update hands on. I've tried it on a test machine, it
>> >> fails half way  through installworld, and really needs single user
>> >> mode to succeed. The  install procedure fails since it starts using
>> >> the newly installed stuff,  things like sh(1) and test(1), and they
>> >> cannot find their libc.so.5, I  guess...
>> >>
>> >> One idea I have is copying / and /usr to some other place and set
>> >> ldconfig  and PATH=some/other/place and when building and installing.
>> >> Haven't tried  it yet, thought I'd hear anyone on this list has a
>> >> better suggestion?
>> >>
>> >> Optimally, there would a couple of gigs on a separate spare disk
>> >> partition  so I could just install everything there and use it upon
>> >> reboot. Problem  is, there is no such space. :(
>> >
>> > In general, my suggestion would be, don't do that.  Do you really need
>> > to upgrade?  Remember, 4.11 is likely to be supported for security
>> > upgrades into early 2006 so if your machines are working and you don't
>> > really need the new functionality, I'd suggest avoiding an upgrade.
>>
>> Well, I need wide char support, as in iswlower and the likes. Maybe I
>> could  use some portability lib or similar...? Ideas?
>>
>> BTW, do you mean that 5.3 is not stable enough, or just that it is a
>> nuisance to upgrade? While I agree that 4.10 is very stable, a lot of
>> things have improved with 5.x...
>
> If you need the improved wide char support, then you will probably have
> to upgrade.  5.3 is generally stable, but I personally think upgrading
> for 4.x by any method other then a new install is a bad idea.  It's
> certaintly possiable, but not trivial.  I believe the instructions in
> UPDATING should work, but I've never tried them remotely.

I've tried the UPDATING instructions, both locally and remotely (the latter 
failed ;-). But really, everything has to be reinstalled, ports and the 
lot, so a new install is probably the best way...

Thanks for you input anyway!

/Palle