[ale] How do I RedHat && upgrade?

[John M. Mills]

Hello --
I am trying to compress three steps into two and would like some advice.

1) I wish to try RedHat (3.0.3? from 4/96 Infomagic CD set),
2) I am going from a.out to ELF
3) I want then to upgrade to 2.0.x Linux.

So far my questions are with (1):
a) I now run the same kernel (1.2.13) as will come with RedHat, but I have
   the infamous LMS 206 CD drive, which works fine for me.  This is not in
   the boot versions available in the RedHat mkfloppies.pl script.  Can I
   use mkfloppies.pl to create a set of boot floppies with my old kernel?
   (I built the kernel in my a.out system, but I included ELF support in
   the configuration.)  If this is self-explanatory in mkfloppies.pl, please
   excuse me.  I guess this falls into a general realm of "bootstrapping."

b) I plan to go to ELF "cold turkey" but I want to keep my user and support
   files (inetrc.*, ppp/*, printing filters, etc.)  Are there some steps I
   need to take to protect this stuff?  (I have no convenient way to do a
   massive backup of my a.out box. &8-<)

   In this connection, what can I reasonably remove now to save space and
   minimize the vestiges of Slackware left in my system?

The RPM utilities are my attraction in going to RedHat, thinking that I
will thereby have a system with an easier-to-manage configuration, and thus
less reason to need the aforementioned massive backups.  I feel at this point
I'm fighting the RPM system a bit, where there might be a way to "go with
the flow."

With regard to (2), I have the ELF-HOWTO, and I expect RedHat will roll in
a compatible set of utilities.  Is there "punch list" of things to add or
fix when making this transition, or are there seriously broken apps in the
RedHat default suite?

With regard to (3), I will consider that when I get ELF in place, but any
suggestions of things to worry about, or not worry about in view of that
plan, are welcomed.

Regards --john mills--

John M. Mills, Senior Research Engineer   --   john.m.mills at gtri.gatech.edu
   Georgia Tech Research Institute, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0853
        Phone contacts: 770.528.3258 (voice), 770.528.7083 (FAX)
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