Make Upgrading Your Fedora System Easier with PreUpgrade

Keeping with their six-month release cycle, Fedora 13 – codename Goddard – was released on Tuesday.

Upgrading your Fedora installs can be a time-consuming process if you’re using the downloaded DVD.  Reinstalling can also take time considering you will need to backup and restore your system.

PreUpgrade is a utility that simplifies the Fedora upgrade process by only downloading the upgrades that apply to your specific system.  PreUpgrade can be installed and used on any system running Fedora 8 and after.

Important Note: Using PreUpgrade to upgrade multi-boot systems can cause problems and prevent the update from initializing.  The Fedora Wiki provides some information for using PreUpgrade on multi-boot systems.

Upgrading Fedora with PreUpgrade is outlined below.  Make sure that your system is connected to a wired network connection for best results.

Step 1: Ensure all current updates are installed with the following terminal command

sudo yum update

Step 2: Install the PreUpgrade package.

sudo yum install preupgrade

Step 3: Run PreUpgrade to start the upgrade process

sudo preupgrade

If you’re upgrading remotely via Secure Shell, then you can start PreUpgrade with the following command.

preupgrade-cli

Step 4: Follow the on-screen instructions to begin the upgrade.

If you are presented with an error message saying that “the installer image could not be downloaded due to lack of space on /boot”, click continue if you’re connected to a wired connection and the installer image will be downloaded upon restart.  You may need to consult the Fedora Wiki for more information on clearing space in your /boot partition.

That’s it!  The necessary upgrades will be downloaded and installed.  The amount of time this takes will vary depending on your internet connection speed.