[CentOS] how to move forward/undo/revert/fix re: a failed CentOS 5.5 to SL 5.5 migration ... [SOLVED?]

Mon Jan 31 01:41:38 UTC 2011
Larry Vaden <vaden at texoma.net>

On Wed, Jan 26, 2011 at 11:25 AM, Larry Vaden <vaden at texoma.net> wrote:
> For various reasons which seemingly fail the necessary/sufficient
> tests with the benefit of hindsight, I attempted to migrate a shell
> machine which is the beach front from which I work (not a production
> server) from CentOS 5.5 to Scientific Linux 5.5 yesterday.
>
> Karanbir is quoted on this list as having said something like:
>
> "All that you should need to do is install centos-release, remove
> redhat-release rpms and just yum update the machine, which should
> bring in all packages changed by CentOS ( since they will have a
> slightly higher E-V-R )."
>
> In other words, is there a get out of jail card based on Karanbir's
> stanza which will return the machine to a consistent state without a
> fresh install?

With apologies for replying to my own post, the final solution
(possibly regarded as draconian and puerile by others) which seemed to
work to return to a consistent state was to download Oracle R5U6 and
invoke 'rpm -ivh' following some rpm which must be set aside in order
to avoid "can not coexist." (e.g., bind vs. bind97 et al).

My thoughts are that it would work as well once CentOS and Scientific
Linux R5U6 are released.

It was necessary to pay special attention to the output of

updatedb; locate .rpm | egrep ".rpmnew$|.rpmorig$|.rpmsave$"

No data was lost, but I watch some Dennis Miller, and like him at the
end of a rant, "I could be wrong about that" :)

kind regards/ldv