Hello all!

I just completed upgrading a Linode from Fedora 17 and Fedora 18 using the yum distro-sync method.

I suspected it should be possible to upgrade using pv_grub kernels and the fedup method.

Has anyone used the fedup method successfully in a Linode?

I tried just once to see what smoke it would give, and could not configure GRUB correctly. I will try again after I worked this process in a less remote machine.

Apologies for bringing a thread back to life, but I'm guessing that this will be helpful for people out there, especially since Fedora 19 was just released, and Linode still has Fedora 17 as the most recent deployable Fedora version.

Here are the instructions I used to upgrade a freshly deployed Fedora 17 32-bit up to Fedora 19. As thoth39 found, there are some gotchas.

1. Deploy Fedora 17 Distribution (32-bit for me), boot it and log in to root
   
   • I suspect that if you go 64-bit, you don't have to deal with PAE kernel nonsense, so that may actually be easier and not require kernel swapping...but I haven't tried 64-bit, so that's another experiment for another day
2. `yum update`
3. Get the system booted on the Fedora kernel...
   
   1. Not sure why...but I just couldn't get grubby to work right for this first kernel install. It works after this initial configuration though, so at least there's that.
   2. Place kernel configuration gunk into /boot/grub/menu.lst, shamelessly ripping it from this somewhat-helpful Linode article. Contrary to what it suggests, do not save the bits to /boot/grub/grub.conf, or pv-grub will just stare blankly at you.
   3. `ln -s /boot/grub/menu.lst /etc/grub.conf`
      
      1. This is the key to eventually getting grubby to play nice with menu.lst.
   4. `yum install kernel-PAE`
      
      1. Ignore grubby failure message
      2. Update menu.lst to point to the right kernel/initrd
4. Reboot using pv-grub
   
   1. Create a configuration profile, and set all the helpers to No
   2. Edit it after saving and make sure they're really all set to no...possible Linode Manager bug?
   3. Then boot it!
5. `yum install fedup`
6. `fedup --network 19`
   
   • Do NOT reboot when it says upgrade is ready
7. Swap in PAE upgrade kernel bits
   
   1. `wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/releases/19/Fedora/i386/os/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz-PAE -O /boot/vmlinuz-fedup`
   2. `wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/releases/19/Fedora/i386/os/images/pxeboot/upgrade-PAE.img -O /boot/initramfs-fedup.img`
8. Reboot, and it will upgrade!
9. Pull up the AJAX console, and wait for it to report "Reached target Shutdown", then manually shut down your Linode...because Fedora seems unable to do it itself.
10. Boot!
11. `yum distribution-synchronization`
12. Enjoy Fedora 19!

If anyone has any thoughts on why grubby doesn't work on first kernel install (but does on subsequent kernel installs), how to make fedup use the PAE kernel directly (instead of having to swap it manually), or how to make the system actually shutdown post-upgrade, I'd like to hear them!

If anyone's interested in steps to get SELinux going on Fedora, I may follow up with those later -- this was my main interest in jumping into Fedora with a distribution-provided kernel.

Used your instructions as a base to successfully go from FC17 to FC19 on 64-bit. I skipped all the PAE related instructions.

At the final reboot with Ajax console, it did not shutdown/need another boot.

I skipped the pv-grub/grubby steps, so still running kernel 3.9.3-x86_64-linode33.

Great! Glad they helped someone.

Hi guys,

Just wondering has anyone has any luck applying this to upgrade fedora17 to fedora19?

Thanks