I have a fairly Rocky 8.10 install where I just installed a few pacakges and setup some mount shares.
Now I want to go to Rocky 9. Is it better to upgrade Rocky 8 to Rocky 9 (via dnf --releasever=9 …) or to do fresh install of Rocky 9?
What do the experts say: Is an upgrade likerly to have some hiccups or can I assume a fresh install is not “better”?
A fresh installation will always be better and the recommended approach to going to a newer version of Rocky Linux. We (project and community) don’t support major version upgrades. You can try to use ELevate, but as we don’t directly work on it, we can’t guarantee it will work for you. There are users who do report success with it, however.
Below is attempting to upgrade 8.10 to 9.5 on a fairly minimal system, using your idea of --releasever.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:03:35 ago on Thu 21 Nov 2024 04:01:10 AM UTC.
Modular dependency problems:
Problem 1: conflicting requests
- nothing provides module(platform:el8) needed by module idm:client:8100020240813202925:6d180cd9.x86_64 from @modulefailsafe
Problem 2: conflicting requests
- nothing provides module(platform:el8) needed by module python36:3.6:8100020231207204726:5ae887d0.x86_64 from @modulefailsafe
Problem 3: conflicting requests
- nothing provides module(platform:el8) needed by module virt:rhel:8100020241105193000:e155f54d.x86_64 from @modulefailsafe
Error:
Problem 1: cannot install both gdbm-libs-1:1.23-1.el9.x86_64 from baseos and gdbm-libs-1:1.18-2.el8.x86_64 from @System
- package gdbm-1:1.18-2.el8.x86_64 from @System requires gdbm-libs(x86-64) = 1:1.18-2.el8, but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package gdbm-libs-1:1.18-2.el8.x86_64
- problem with installed package gdbm-1:1.18-2.el8.x86_64
Problem 2: cannot install both iptables-libs-1.8.10-4.el9_4.x86_64 from baseos and iptables-libs-1.8.5-11.el8.x86_64 from @System
- package iptables-1.8.5-11.el8.x86_64 from @System requires iptables-libs(x86-64) = 1.8.5-11.el8, but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package iptables-libs-1.8.5-11.el8.x86_64
- problem with installed package iptables-1.8.5-11.el8.x86_64
Problem 3: cannot install both libevent-2.1.12-8.el9_4.x86_64 from baseos and libevent-2.1.8-5.el8.x86_64 from @System
- package libverto-libevent-0.3.2-2.el8.x86_64 from @System requires libevent-2.1.so.6()(64bit), but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package libevent-2.1.8-5.el8.x86_64
- problem with installed package libverto-libevent-0.3.2-2.el8.x86_64
Problem 4: package python3-3.9.19-8.el9_5.1.x86_64 from baseos obsoletes platform-python < 3.9 provided by platform-python-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64 from @System
- package python3-asn1crypto-0.24.0-3.el8.noarch from @System requires python(abi) = 3.6, but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package platform-python-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64
- problem with installed package python3-asn1crypto-0.24.0-3.el8.noarch
Problem 5: cannot install both python3-libs-3.9.19-8.el9_5.1.x86_64 from baseos and python3-libs-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64 from @System
- package python3-schedutils-0.6-6.el8.x86_64 from @System requires libpython3.6m.so.1.0()(64bit), but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package platform-python-pip-9.0.3-24.el8.rocky.0.noarch
- problem with installed package python3-schedutils-0.6-6.el8.x86_64
Problem 6: cannot install both python3-libs-3.9.19-8.el9_5.1.x86_64 from baseos and python3-libs-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64 from @System
- package python3-unbound-1.16.2-5.el8_9.6.x86_64 from @System requires libpython3.6m.so.1.0()(64bit), but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package platform-python-setuptools-39.2.0-7.el8.noarch
- problem with installed package python3-unbound-1.16.2-5.el8_9.6.x86_64
Problem 7: cannot install both python3-libs-3.9.19-8.el9_5.1.x86_64 from baseos and python3-libs-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64 from @System
- package unbound-libs-1.16.2-5.el8_9.6.x86_64 from @System requires libpython3.6m.so.1.0()(64bit), but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package python3-libs-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64
- problem with installed package unbound-libs-1.16.2-5.el8_9.6.x86_64
Problem 8: package python3-unbound-1.16.2-5.el8_9.6.x86_64 from @System requires libpython3.6m.so.1.0()(64bit), but none of the providers can be installed
- package python3-pip-wheel-21.3.1-1.el9.noarch from baseos conflicts with python3-libs < 3.9.17-2 provided by python3-libs-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64 from @System
- cannot install the best update candidate for package python3-unbound-1.16.2-5.el8_9.6.x86_64
- cannot install the best update candidate for package python3-pip-wheel-9.0.3-24.el8.rocky.0.noarch
Problem 9: package unbound-libs-1.16.2-5.el8_9.6.x86_64 from @System requires libpython3.6m.so.1.0()(64bit), but none of the providers can be installed
- package python3-setuptools-wheel-53.0.0-13.el9.noarch from baseos conflicts with python3-libs < 3.9.9-2 provided by python3-libs-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64 from @System
- cannot install the best update candidate for package unbound-libs-1.16.2-5.el8_9.6.x86_64
- cannot install the best update candidate for package python3-setuptools-wheel-39.2.0-7.el8.noarch
Problem 10: package python3-3.9.19-8.el9_5.1.x86_64 from baseos obsoletes platform-python < 3.9 provided by platform-python-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64 from @System
- package authselect-compat-1.2.6-2.el9.x86_64 from appstream requires python(abi) = 3.9, but none of the providers can be installed
- package python3-jwt-1.6.1-2.el8.noarch from @System requires python(abi) = 3.6, but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package authselect-compat-1.2.6-2.el8.x86_64
- problem with installed package python3-jwt-1.6.1-2.el8.noarch
Problem 11: package python3-3.9.19-8.el9_5.1.x86_64 from baseos obsoletes platform-python < 3.9 provided by platform-python-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64 from @System
- package cloud-init-23.4-19.el9.0.2.noarch from appstream requires python(abi) = 3.9, but none of the providers can be installed
- package python3-slip-0.6.4-13.el8.noarch from @System requires python(abi) = 3.6, but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package cloud-init-23.4-7.el8_10.0.1.noarch
- problem with installed package python3-slip-0.6.4-13.el8.noarch
Problem 12: package python3-3.9.19-8.el9_5.1.x86_64 from baseos obsoletes platform-python < 3.9 provided by platform-python-3.6.8-62.el8_10.rocky.0.x86_64 from @System
- package iotop-0.6-30.el9.noarch from baseos requires python(abi) = 3.9, but none of the providers can be installed
- package python3-slip-dbus-0.6.4-13.el8.noarch from @System requires python(abi) = 3.6, but none of the providers can be installed
- cannot install the best update candidate for package iotop-0.6-18.el8.noarch
- problem with installed package python3-slip-dbus-0.6.4-13.el8.noarch
(try to add '--allowerasing' to command line to replace conflicting packages or '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)
Trying to use --allowerasing doesn’t seem to try cause a lot of problems. View paste EBPA
With all of that said, YMMV. Not all system configurations are created equal.
You are recommended to do a clean installation.