[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Easy way to switch from RedHat to Debian?



In article <"tW1_d.0.lw2.Vy5ep"@debian>,
	mshaw@nortel.ca ("Michael Shaw") writes:
> 
> I'm planning to convert my home systems to Debian Linux from RedHat and was
> wondering if there was anyone out there who had performed this task before?
> 
Christoph Lameter posted a small receipt on how to convert a Redhat
system without any reboot into a Debian system.  He obviously already
has aquired some experience doing this! ;-) Search via Deja News for
his name in comp.os.linux.development.system and/or for the thread
"Re: rpm vs. dpkg ( + How to upgrade to Debian)". What the heck, i
just found it and will reproduce the relevant portions of it here:

------------cut-here----------------------------------------------

[header has been shortened by me!]

From: Christoph Lameter <clameter@miriam.fuller.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: rpm vs. dpkg ( + How to upgrade to Debian)
Date: 4 Jun 1997 22:13:57 -0700
Sender: clameter@news.fuller.edu
Message-ID: <5n5hul$kvd$1@miriam.fuller.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: miriam.fuller.edu
X-Server-Date: 5 Jun 1997 05:13:57 GMT

[stuff deleted]

Upgrading RedHat to Debian
--------------------------

Usually people have a RedHat installed and then they want me to run
the server. Do you know that you can upgrade a RedHat system to Debian
while it is in full operation? Have done that with a couple of
machines. Makes future maintenance simpler. I have done this a couple
of times just using a telnet session:

1. Use RPM to remove all development and unused packages to save
space.

2. Get the dpkg nondebbian.tar.gz from project/experimental from the
Debian FTP sites. That package includes dpkg in .tar.gz
format. Install manually. Remove the rpm package manager. No need
anymore.

3. Get the base packages via ftp from somewhere.

4. Install the base packages using dpkg... They will overwrite parts
of the old redhat installation. You might need some --force-xx to get
things going. (or use "ar x" to extract the binaries). You might have
to fiddle around with some configuration files in /etc.

5. At this point you should be able to run dselect. Install the
packages you need. If you need an old red hat package to keep
functioning then just do not install it. At some point rescue the
configuration files and simply install the Debian package counting on
that it will overwrite a large part of the file. Use the configfiles
(usually they are in the same location anyways) for the Debian
Package.

As you install packages software is activated. There is really no need
to reboot the system!

6. You should have a fully operational Debian System. Note that the
way init works is different. You need to make sure that inittab is
invoking the correct scripts before doing a reboot.

[stuff deleted]

------------cut-here----------------------------------------------

                                   Good Luck, P. *8^)
-- 
   Paul Seelig                         pseelig@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de
   African Music Archive - Institute for Ethnology and Africa Studies
   Johannes Gutenberg-University   -  Forum 6  -  55099 Mainz/Germany
   My Homepage in the WWW at the URL http://www.uni-mainz.de/~pseelig 


--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-user-request@lists.debian.org . 
Trouble?  e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .


Reply to: