Upgrade Mageia5 to Mageia6

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 even though 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 Mageia5 systems and the results were consistent and satisfactory, not to mention simple.

Step 0.

Always backup critical information. Have a Mageia5 recovery disc on hand.

Read the Release Notes, the Documentation and the Errata for Mageia 6. Other than updated applications, the biggest changes are support for UEFI and the move to GRUB2. If you are upgrading from a GRUB/Mageia5, you will keep GRUB.

You can always download an ISO image to do the upgrade rather than do an in-place installation if your Internet connection is slow. DO NOT attempt an upgrade from the Live ISO image as it will overwrite your existing system.

Upgrade From GUI

Step 1.

Open a terminal window.

$ sudo mgaapplet-upgrade-helper --new_distro_version=6

And you're done. This essentially does all the following individual commands.

Upgrade From CLI

Step 1.

Fully update the packages you now have installed.

$ sudo urpmi --auto-update --auto -v

Step 2.

Remove all the existing Mageia5 repositories.

$ sudo urpmi.removemedia -av

Step 3.

Add the Mageia 6 repositories. (All on one line.)

$ sudo urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://mirrors.mageia.org/api/mageia.6.i586.list'

Note: for 64-bit systems, substitute x86_64 for i586.

Step 4.

Update the packages

$ sudo urpmi --replacefiles --auto-update --auto -v

Step 5.

Reboot. You'll be using a new kernel, new glibc and so on.

$ sudo shutdown -r now

Step 6.

Run the package update command from Step 4 again. It should return with no packages needing updating.

Done. But . . . .

Do Some Checking.

$ cat /etc/redhat-release
$ cat /etc/issue

Those commands should return the information that you are running Mageia 6.

I did have an issue on one machine and

$ sudo urpmi mageia-release-common

fixed it.

You can also manually edit those version files in /etc to change the version number.

"60% of the Time, It Works Every Time" -- Anchorman

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