[PlanetCCRMA] How to install RH9

[Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano]

>     I hadn't updated for awhile, so when I finally updated, my rh8 machine
> froze at the snd-motif install. Now when I try to rpm -e the snd-motifs, the
> terminal window just goes to sleep. Looks like the rpm dbase is corrupted,

You could try to recover from this. First make sure that all rpm and
synaptic processes are dead, you might need to "kill -9" them. After
that get rid of any leftover stuff from the dead rpm processes (BTW,
this is a well known bug in rpm). Do an "ls /var/lib/rpm/__db*", if
those files are there just erase them. 

You could, after that, do an "rpm --rebuilddb" just to be on the safe
side (could take a while to rebuild). 

Then go ahead with the "apt-get update" "apt-get dist-upgrade" cycle.
Maybe you would want to erase the last package installed just in case
the install was not completely successfull. Do a "rpm -q -a --last|more"
and erase the first package in the list (if it is snd-motif). You may
need to "rpm -e --nodeps" temporarily. 

> SO.... I figure this is a good time to upgrade to RH9. My question is,
> what's the cleanest way to do it? I have a dual os ( w2000 on c:- Redhat8 on
> d:- separate physical drives.) Should I just format d:? (in windoze I would
> just use fdisk to remove the partition. Is there a similar command in Linux?
> Or can I just use fdisk to remove the Linux partition?)) Will RH9 just
> overwrite RH8? Will it remove grub?( any gotchas there?)

I usually install from scratch (ie: I don't "upgrade"). The RedHat 9
installer will give you a choice of upgrading the existing stuff or
installing from scratch. The installer also will give you a chance to
reformat or reuse the different partitions you have in your machine. 

Before redoing the whole thing save, for example, the whole of /etc in a
tarfile just in case there are configuration changes you would like to
review latter...

-- Fernando