i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

I guess 'cause I was busy.  It seemed to me OpSu 11.3 might solve some lingering aggravations in my kde 4.4.4 install.  Soooo... that meant upgrade my OpSu 11.2, right?  And get it running for work Monday.  As usual, WMMSYDHT.

...

I usually use the net install version, which is quick to get started and slow to install (because all of the packages have to be downloaded during the install process.  As opposed, for instance, to the install I just did on my Gateway netbook.  On that one, I installed from the OpSu/KDE4.4 live USB flash drive version.  Piece of cake.

So, you know, why follow the instructions?  Just because it SAYS you can't update from the Live drive, who's to say it's actually true.  Because, ummm, my intention was to do a "clean install" of 11.3, not simply an update version.  But then again, I did want to preserve my home directory.

It seemed to proceed according to plan, right up to the part where it selects the packages, whereupon it hung up and refused to budge further.   Oh, drat!

Well, actually, the live USB version was not my intended first route.  My first choice (lost my mind for a moment) was to burn the full DVD installer.  But, I overlooked one tiny detail: I don't have an external DVD drive, only a very nice (but elderly) Yamaha external CD drive.  So, after dutifully downloading the DVD package via torrent (WOW!  Quick!), Oops.  So, rather than download all the CDs -- as I was by now time-challenged -- I tried the Live USB drive I already had working.

And then for round 3:  do it the old routine way, download the net installer version, burn the CD and fire it up.  Let's go Acer netbook!  The initial install took about 2 hrs.  Not too shabby, but a long wait anyway.

But, let me clue you in to a small problem you may or may not run into:  The update installer cannot properly handle NFS drives.  I have not fully figured out the solution yet, but I do know the PROBLEM (and a workaround, revealed here now):  When the installer reboots the system, it will not boot past the activation of the NFS client for the drives listed in FSTAB.  (FYI--I have remote drives automatically mounted via my fstab file.)

Oh, crap!  How do I fix this if I can't boot the computer?  Am I about to do a clean/clean install?  Lose data, all that sort of stuff?

Let me reiterate: oh, crap!

Howsomever, the "fail" prompt sort of clued me in, as it said something about being unable to mount the NFS partitions listed in fstab.  Soooo...

It would seem that if I could edit fstab and comment out my NFS shares, I will be good to go, no?

So, I rebooted with the aforementioned USB Live flash drive install, which of course is as slow as ... Vista (on my Gateway, and don't get me started) ...

Fortunately, the live drive is very smart and automounts the root linux partition.  "kdesu kwrite" > open file>/etc/fstab.  Comment out the offending NFS shares, save, reboot.

Yay!  (But not "yay" enough to avoid another dreaded all-nighter.)  So, anyway, I can't think of any other horrifying horrors to report.   Acer is nicely running OpSu 11.3, I haven't stumbled across any serious problems, KDE and LXDE installed properly and, um, well I have a lot of additional programs  to be fixing due to upgrades removing all of my custom repositories (as they would now be for the wrong version of OpSu).  But, fair enough and as expected.

Let me now segue into a post I never got around to writing: I mean, you would not have to be a genius to realize you should not load the OpSu "Factory" version onto you server, would you?  I mean, the OpSu team DID put a warning on the list serve that the Factory version was moving to KDE 4.5, beware, etc.

And, on some of my computers, I dutifully changed the repositories.*  But, I forgot to do so on my server.  So, next thing I know I have KDE 4.4.5 running, which is apparently a precursor to 4.5, but in any event, some significant disasters:

1. Apache2 won't start.  Rather critical if this is MY SERVER, wouldn't you say?

2. My external USB hard drive no longer mounts, WHICH IS WHERE MY IFOLDER ARCHIVES ARE.  Again, somewhat mission critical.  Oh, and it turns out the Apache2 failure is due to my server files being on the external hard drive, which as noted IS NOT MOUNTING.

Unanticipated roll-back.  Accomplished (for those of you who may want to do the same?) by restoring the repositories to Stable version, then running zypper dup from a command line, which performs a distro upgrade.*

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*Excepting that after OpSu announced changes in the repositories AND I CHANGED TO STABLE KDE, OpSu then pulled a fast one and CHANGED THE LINKS AGAIN.  So, if you haven't checked your repository links lately, check the current OpSu KDE repository locations.

I have no idea why this borked my external drive, since that presumably is unrelated to KDE.

Request-in-a-bottle to OpSu team(s): would it be so awful to automate the KDE repositories, perhaps with something like the "add community" repositories list in the YAST repository system?  Or better yet, a pop up warning AND an automated repository updater, that comes up when refreshing the repositories for a software install.  Because I have been numerously surprised by the relocations AND I am really doubting I am alone in this.