Hello everyone,
I'm trying to upgrade slackware from 10.1 to 10.2 using Slackpkg. The problem is that after about 30 minutes slackpkg ended with an error that stated there was a problem with the /tmp folder and I probably didn't have user access. Well I do have user access as I am logged on as root. After that alomst all the linux commands appear to be missing (rm, cat, mkdir, etc.). I cannot find anything anywhere that actually discusses this error and offers a solution. XWindows works fine as do all the KDE associated commands. It seems to be limited to the command line commands in terminal mode. I have not rebooted for fear of something terrible happening. Can anyone help.

Thank You
Oliver

If it's at all possible, install slack 10.2 fresh. I've never had much luck with upgrades.

I have about 2 gigabytes of development that I cannot afford to lose. I just need to get these utilities back up and running. If there were better documentation on what I need to back up it would not be an issue. But I have Kylix 3, C++ Builder 3, CbuilderX, and CBuilder 2005 all installed, plus many support utilities. Can anyone offer a suggestion other than a "fresh install".

Thank you.
Oliver

For every release of Slackware, there is a file called UPGRADE.TXT that gives exceedingly explicit instructions on how to upgrade from one version to the next. I would download the ISO for 10.2, mount it and follow the instructions.

Hello Everyone,
My first post must not have been clear, so I will ask again. I ran Slackpkg to upgrade Slackware from 10.1 to 10.2 and it ended with an error that it had a problem with /tmp and when it was done none of the built in command line commands seem to work (car, rm, mkdir, df, etc.). KDE still works fine and my gigabytes for development software all still work and are intact.

My question is:

Has anyone else experienced this problem with Slackpkg, and if so, what causes the problem with the /tmp folder? This was run as root and there does seem to be plenty of disk space so my question is very specific. I am more than willing to invest the time to repair the current installation, so if you have answers to this specific question please reply. Since this was run to update some specific packages and since I have no problem working with the config files, I would like to take the steps to manually fix this.

Thanks again,
Oliver

To be honest, I've used slackpkg pretty extensively and never had a problem with it. That said, I've never used it (or any other automated system) to upgrade from one version to the next as there are almost always issues that slackpkg isn't going to resolve.

If you have a working KDE, the first thing I would try to do is to back up your important files to CD or another computer. Not having the usual commands availble isn't good and it may prevent you from backing out of this gracefully, so you want to prepare for a possible re-install before you do anything else.
Also, please post the exact error message you're seeing. It could help pinpoint what is going wrong.

I would first have a look at the 10.2 UPGRADE.TXT and start working through any potential issues. That may get 10.2 functional.

I'm going to ask the moderators to move this thread to the Slackware forum. There are some very, very knowledgeable people there who can almost certainly help.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in the Slackware Forum and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Sounds like you may need to reinstall coreutils and util-linux from the /a directory of the first Slackware CD. Those two packages hold most of the command line functions.

Did you run out of disk space on /tmp? I've never experienced an issue with slackpkg, but you have to be careful. All it does is use the included package tools, but it assumes that you know exactly why and how you want each package updated.

It sounds to me more like you've hosed glibc by trying to upgrade it with slackpkg (bad move - this should never really be updated with any automated tool).

slackpkg is really only useful for tracking -current, or grabbing the odd package or two you've missed.

If you are going from one release to the next, you should really follow Pat's instructions on UPGRADE.TXT (as Hangdog42 has already mentioned).

Thatnks reddazz, this is my first time using this site and I was unaware that a slackware area existed. I also want to thank everyone who is responding. I've accepted that I will probably have to treinstall slackware but does anyone know what folders I should backup to keep my development environment intact. Everthing has been installed in a folder under the /usr folder. I've scanned the Internet and have been unable to find any information on how to back up the development folders.

Thanks,
Oliver

There are a couple of things to think about here, the programs and the data. The data bit should be easy if you've been saving things in a known set of directories. You'll just need to back those up. You'll probably want to back up your /home/oliverybailey directory as well. A lot of the personal configuration will be saved in directories there. The programs may be a different matter. If you know what directories you've got them in, you could back those up and put them back after the re-install. Just don't do a wholesale copy of /usr.

You could try booting off of a 10.2 CD and then use removepkg to remove any packages you think are corrupted. Then use "upgradepkg --install-new" to upgrade/reinstall all packages. Remember to use the ROOT variable so they get installed to the right place. See the man pages for removepkg and upgradepkg.
If you have multiple partions mounted, say hda1 is / and hda2 is usr/, then mount them before beginning, for example, mount hda1 to /mnt/temproot and hda2 to /mnt/temproot/usr.