Question on Updating older versions of Linux

I am having a few problems with one of my computers and working with this project.
So I was considering updating the Linux version I have to a more recent version, although I think the problem could be related to memory issues.

Does anyone know for sure if it is possible to update Linux from Fedora Core 6 to say Fedora Core 8 or 9 (9 may not be out yet), without losing any of my current data, programmes and settings?

What is involved in doing this? I have limited in depth Linux knowledge of commands and processes.

Will this cause my computer to lose it's identity and be reassigned a new one? I would prefer it not to change.

If it is fairly easy then I might have a go to see if my SIGSEGV errors get fixed up, and also the fact that this one particular machine seems to getting identified as anything but the AMD Opteron that it is, it keeps getting lumped with Intels, Windows and Darwin machines.
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AFAIK in relation to BOINC there are no real problems in updating or using another linux disto.

In the past I've used an installed BOINC on several versions of (K)(X)Ubuntu.
Just made a backup of all the installed files from my home directory (including the projects) an re-used them after the (re-)install of another distro.
To be sure you can always close your network connection on the first start of BOINC, if things go wrong there's always the backup files to be re-used if needed.
That way "trashed" wu's won't be reported and no harm is done.

Note: I wasn't using the "stock" clients of the distro's but did a "sh filename" install from the dl-section of BOINC.


As far as Fedora goes... I can't help you on this matter.. sorry...

;-)
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It has taken over a year (almost 1 and a half in fact), but I have finally upgraded my Fedora Core 3 machine (a AMD Opteron 285).
I was going to just install Fedora 11 and start again but the computer died so I installed a new motherboard and processor (now an AMD X4 955) but due to a few issues in getting Boinc to work I trashed a lot of work units.

It finally turned out to be an incorrect Boinc Manager installed and a permossion problem with the executable for Docking.

I tried to installed Boinc via Fedora but I could not locate the programme after it installed on the computer so I could not start it as I did not know where it was.
It also installed as a service which then had other issues in controlling how Boinc worked, and as I could not find the project directory I could not copy my existing folder across so I gave that up as a bad joke and managed after 3 attempts to uninstall the downloaded Boinc version altogether.

Went back to an install as per an older Linux version and added an Boinc Manager from a much older Boinc version and finally all is now working.

This took over a day to sort out, so no wonder I left it this long, I knew it was going to be a problem.
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$ find -name boinc*

Should show you where its files are.

But the executable binaries from the fedora RPMs go to /usr/bin/ by default.
So you can start the BOINC Manager GUI with the command
$ /usr/bin/boincmgr
(there should be a shortcut for it in Applications->System Tools, too).
When you start boincmgr, it tells you the location of its 'Data directory' (SIC) on the Messages tab.
Typically, with fedora, that's in /var/lib/boinc.

Maintaining the proper security context and owner:group for its files is the most important thing I've found to make BOINC get along with SELinux and other security considerations (e.g. not running from the root account any more than necessary)... so after you've created(moved) files like cc_config.xml, gui_rpc_auth.cfg and remote_hosts.cfg in(to) the /var/lib/boinc/ subdir, be sure to run
# chown -Rc boinc:boinc /var/lib/boinc/*
on them, then
# restorecon -RF /var/lib/boinc/*

Possibly the first time it's run you need to do Advanced->Select Computer, put in 'localhost' (or 127.0.0.1) then the password...

After that the boinc-client should autostart as a service whenever the computer's rebooted, and as long as the password matches what's in the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file, BOINC Manager should connect to the boinc-client service whenever boincmgr's started.

You could also refer to the BOINC/fedora wiki page. :-)

edit1: If you stop the service (# /sbin/service boinc-client stop) and put your saved fc11 client_state.xml and client_state_prev.xml files in the new BOINC's 'data directory' (don't forget to chown them to boinc:boinc) then restart boinc-client or just reboot, the new install should remember all your attached projects and won't create a new ID that needs to be merged with the old one of the same name. Hopefully you'll find this info useful when you upgrade to fc14 (should be out within a week), since support for fc11 ended about 6-months ago.