upgrade to shrike from 7.3, results

[mark]

After having complete and total failure on the "upgrade" - if anyone's 
paying any attention from RedHat, this is *not* acceptable in a business 
environment, or for desktop users - every single time the python scripts 
with anaconda *failed* with unhandled exceptions, I went on to Plan B.

Attempt 1:
    a) Copy /boot, /, and /home to a new spare drive (the same one
	that the .iso's are on.
    b) Select reinstall system. Skip formatting the filesystems.
    c) Screw around with customizing for a user that, like most,
	*don't* need the kitchen sink. Have it fail a number of
	times with insufficient space, since it can't seem to
	figure out that it's going to overwrite many files. Delete
	lots o' stuff.
    d) Finally get it to install. Shell looks fine. KDE will *not* start,
	and croaks every time. Even though I told it reinstall, it
	apparently didn't reinit the rpm d/b, and did *not* install
	some things, since they conflicted with other, older packages.

Attempt 2:
    a) copy a bit more over to the new drive.
    b) Select reinstall system. Let it format /var (and so wipe
	out the rpm d/b, and /.
    c) Customize packages.
    d) Continue.

Success. Then it was just copy /home back, and create users to use those 
directories, and chown -R on them.

All in all, she's upgraded...but this is a *lousy* way to expect 
barely-computer-literate desktop-oriented users to expect to do an 
upgrade...since it *ain't*, it's an install.

*sigh*

	mark "and her network printing is finally working...."
-- 
The Bushista: compassionless conservatism