MaximumHoyt

Back in the early days of Linux, the changes to the Operating System were so dramatic that even when updating withing the same distro, in-place point release updates were problematic enough and it was always recommended that a major version release be done from scratch. There were just too many major changes to the underlying subsystems and package naming conventions. Doing an in-place update was just asking for trouble.

Modern distros have matured quite a bit, although there are occasionally some major subsystem changes being made. Yet it's never been easier to do an in-place major version upgrade.

I just did the upgrade on several Mageia4 systems and the results were consistent and satisfactory, not to mention simple.

Step 0.

Always backup critical information. Have a Mageia4 recovery disc on hand.

Read the Release Notes and the Errata for Mageia 5.Other than updated applications, teh biggest change is support for UEFI. Review the Mageia 5 Documentation about the install…

There are several Dynamic DNS clients available for Linux. I have never had them work satisfactorily with my DNS provider ZoneEdit.

Fortunately, it is possible to use wget to send the current IP address to ZoneEdit (put this command all on one line, of course).

$/usr/bin/wget -O - --http-user=USER_NAME --http-passwd=PASSWORD 'http://dynamic.zoneedit.com/auth/dynamic.html?host=DOMAIN_NAME.COM'

This can be run as any user.

I have found it useful to use cron to run it. Instead of a specific time, I just use the macro @daily in my crontab. It might be better for ZoneEdit to only run it every few days.

NOTE: ZoneEdit is migrating to a user key rather than a password and, while they are maintaining backwards compatibility for now, you should migrate as soon as practical.