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Cross-grading from SL v5.1 i386 to SL v5.2 x86_64

Ok, that Scientific Linux v5.1 x86_64 CD you installed your Opteron server with turns out to be i386. Start again? Or do something more interesting instead?

1.

Upgrade the Obvious Way

Stick in your v5.2 x86_64 netinstall CD and reboot. Eventually the install process starts "searching for previous installations", apparently finds it, but then at the page with radio buttons offering Install and Upgrade defaults to Install. Select Upgrade, then click Next. The upgrade should proceed nicely; at the end, eject the CD and reboot.

2.

Clean Up the i386 RPMs

There will now be both i386 and x86_64 versions of many packages installed. To see this 

  rpm -qa --queryformat '%{name}.%{arch}\n'
Delete them using rpm -e <package>.i386. . .  

A Sticking Point

One sticking point needed wiping out. These packages 

 
  libselinux.i386
  libgpg-error.i386
  libsepol.i386
  device-mapper.i386
  cryptsetup-luks.i386
  libgcrypt.i386
  e2fsprogs-libs.i386
refused to budge because 
  rpm -e cryptsetup-luks.i386
	cryptsetup-luks >= 1.0.1-2 is needed by (installed) hal-0.5.8.1-35.el5.x86_64
which seems odd, and, for example, 
  rpm -e libgpg-error.i386
  error: Failed dependencies:
          libgpg-error.so.0 is needed by (installed) libgcrypt-1.2.3-1.i386
          libgpg-error.so.0 is needed by (installed) cryptsetup-luks-1.0.3-4.el5.i386

The solution is to get the latest x86_64 version of cryptsetup-luks, e.g., 

  wget http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/52/x86_64/updates/fastbugs/cryptsetup-luks-1.0.3-4.el5.x86_64.rpm
then install it 
  rpm -ivh cryptsetup-luks-1.0.3-4.el5.x86_64.rpm
Then the remaining i386 packages can be removed.

3.

Configure RPM and Clean the YUM Cache

RPM will still be set to pick up i386 packages rather than x86_64. So edit /etc/rpm/platform — change 

  athlon-redhat-linux
to 
x86_64-redhat-linux

Finally, 

  yum clean all
and 
  yum update
and all should be well.

4.

Configure YUM

Within /etc/yum.repos.d/*, ensure you update, e.g., 

  http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/52/x86_64/SL
rather than 
  http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/51/i386/SL