OLPC-Update + RPMs WAS:Re: OLPC XO Opera browser as Sugar activity

[david at lang.hm]

On Fri, 27 Jun 2008, Erik Garrison wrote:

> We should move away from using olpc-update to upgrade systems.  We
> should not implement this or any hack to preserve manually installed
> rpms through olpc-updates.
>
> Existing package managers (e.g. apt, rpm) do exactly what we want and
> more.  Furthermore they are extensively tested and well documented.  Why
> have we locally manufactured and promoted the square wheels of
> olpc-update and copy-nand?

every existing package management system makes assumptions about how large 
an upgrade you are making. even apt (historicly one of the best long-term 
systems) runs into significant problems if the upgrade that you are making 
is too large, frequently without being able to identify the problem ahead 
of time.

with yum, can you (in one step) do an upgrade from Fedora 7 to Fedora 9? I 
don't think it can.

the snapshot based approach has headaches, but the one huge advantage that 
it does have is the ability to do the upgrade no matter what the condition 
of the old system image is (including the possibility that the system 
image is corrupt)

David Lang