Upgrade Rocky Linux

If you already have a Linux Flame workstation configured with Rocky Linux, it is possible to use Autodesk's EasyUpgrade script to upgrade the operating system to the latest certified version (within the same major release) without having to reinstall the OS from scratch.

This way, your configuration and installed applications are preserved, simplifying the OS upgrade process.

The following upgrade paths are supported:

• Rocky Linux 9.3 to Rocky Linux 9.5
• Rocky Linux 8.7 to Rocky Linux 8.10
• Rocky Linux 8.5 to Rocky Linux 8.10

The migration script is located in the <path_to_dku>/Utils/OS_easyUpgrade folder of DKU 20, where <path_to_dku> is the path to your extracted DKU tar archive.

Upgrade process

Preparing the upgrade

Before proceeding with the upgrade, follow these steps:

1. Backup your workstation setup and all important user data.
2. Download the DKU from the Flame System Requirements, and then extract the contents of the file. You can use tar -xvf <DKU_file_name>.tar. You do not have to install the DKU.
3. Download the Autodesk Rocky Linux Installation ISO for the version of the OS you want to upgrade to from the Autodesk Flame System Requirements page. The easyupgrade process will NOT work if you use a generic Rocky Linux ISO file.
4. Copy the iso file to a locally accessible location (eg. /tmp or a USB drive - USB 3 recommended).

Testing the upgrade

It is possible to check if any package conflicts might prevent the upgrade from proceeding by running the script with the --checkonly option:

As root, do:

<path_to_dku>/Utils/OS_easyUpgrade/easyupgrade.py --checkonly <iso_name>

where <path_to_dku> is the path to your DKU installation and <iso_name> is the full pathname of your Autodesk Rocky Linux iso file.

The script will perform a check and report if any conflicts are found (in that case, refer to section Conflicts below). If any Flame-related packages prior to release 2020 are found, the script will ask you to remove them using rmsoft.

Performing the upgrade

Make sure you have prepared your workstation as explained in section Preparing the upgrade above.

Then, as root, do:

<path_to_dku>/Utils/OS_easyUpgrade/easyupgrade.py <iso_name>

where <path_to_dku> is the path where you've extraced the DKU tar file and <iso_name> is the full pathname of your Autodesk Rocky Linux iso file.

The script will check for package conflicts that might prevent the upgrade from working and if none are found, will ask the user to confirm before proceeding with the OS upgrade.

Post-upgrade

If your monitor setup had specific configuration options in the xorg.conf file, you can find a backup of the original (pre-upgrade) file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.easyupgrade.

If you had installed custom packages/applications prior to the upgrade, it is possible that they need to be manually updated/reinstalled to work with the current OS.

The date of the upgrade is written to file /etc/easyupgrade.txt for reference.

In some cases, the upgrade to a newer OS might have caused your network adapters or attached disks to be attributed new names, causing loss of network connectivity or issues with mounting partitions. If this is the case, you will need to reconfigure your network interfaces and/or mount points (in /etc/fstab).

Solving Conflicts

If you have installed packages in the past that are not part of the regular Autodesk Flame Workstation installation script, it is possible that the easyupgrade script will report conflicts and refuse to proceed with the upgrade.

In such a case, the following options are available, but should be considered for advanced users only (Autodesk will not offer support for such occurrences):

• remove the offending package(s) and try the easyupgrade script again
• exclude some or all of the offending packages with the -x option to the easyupgrade script

If the conflicts cannot be resolved, you will need to perform a full OS install from scratch. See Install Linux.

Displaying the Current Version of the OS

The following command displays the current version of the operating system:

cat /etc/redhat-release  

When upgrading to 8.10, it would display Rocky Linux release 8.5 (Green Obsidian) or Rocky Linux release 8.7 (Green Obsidian) before the upgrade and Rocky Linux release 8.10 (Green Obsidian) after.

When upgrading to to 9.5, it would display Rocky Linux release 9.3 (Blue Onyx) before the upgrade and Rocky Linux release 9.5 (Blue Onyx) after.

The following command displays the kernel version:

uname -r

When upgrading to Rocky 8.10, usually is 4.18.0-348.20.1.el8_5.x86_64 or 4.18.0-425.3.1.el8.x86_64 before the upgrade, and 4.18.0-553.el8_10.x86_64 after.

When upgrading to Rocky 9.5, usually is 5.14.0-362.8.1.el9_3.x86_64 before the upgrade and 5.14.0-503.14.1.el9_5.x86_64 after.

Script reference

Usage:

easyupgrade.py [-h] [-c] [-d] [-s] [-v] [--version] [-x EXCLUDES] isofile

required arguments:
  isofile               full path to the ADSK-provided Rocky Linux iso file

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -c, --checkonly       only check for package conflicts, without proceeding
                        with the actual upgrade
  -d, --debug           print commands but don\'t actually execute them. For
                        debug purposes only
  -s, --skipcleanup     skip post-upgrade cleanup. For debug purposes only
  -v, --verbose         display commands as they are executed
  --version             display script version and exit
  -x EXCLUDES, --excludes EXCLUDES
                        comma-separated list of packages to exclude. Use at
                        your own risks