If this post is in the wrong area the please accept my apology.
A relative of mine is running Fedora Core 17 and is wanting to upgrade to a newer release and as the family’s ‘Linux Expert’ I have been ‘delegated’ to assist him with updating his system.
Not having used Fedora before (for my sins I have been using Linux Mint for several years) I realised that I needed to get some information/advice on my options.
Before you respond to this post please be aware of the following:
He is running Fedora in VMware Workstation Pro 26H1 on Windows 11.
The only application installed in Fedora runs a computer controlled Milling Machine.
The Fedora VM was supplied to him back in 2013 ‘ready-to-run’.
He has lost the DVD containing the application source code and installable package so starting from scratch is a NO-GO. The applications author is not available (passed away 2 years ago).
I have read what documentation he has and there is NO mention on how the application is setup in Fedora.
As I see it my options are as follows:
Upgrade Fedora to a newer release with the application in-situ.
Find someway to extract the application and reload it after installing a new Fedora.
Tell him that it is not possible and he will have to get some new software to run his Milling Machine.
My gut feeling is that option 3 is the only one available to him.
Why? What’s the motivation or reason to upgrade the OS? It’s perfectly fine to keep this vintage application running in this VM.
I’ve done some projects like this in the past ( old application on obsolete HW running obsolete OS) and this can be extremely painful and time consuming.
Is the OS 64bIt? Appl 32 or 64bit ? What are the dependencies ( e.g. GUI toolkit )? This is most likely all obsolete and it will be very difficult or almost imposible to move to a newer OS.
The only advantage is that you can clone the VM and experiment in a seperate environment / system.
There may be other users of the same machine that still have the source. There are often online groups for specific hardware that will have software updated for use with current linux systems. If internet searches fail, you can try asking an AI for linux source code — it may have scraped the original source and will provide a (mangled) version given the right prompt.
The documentation we do have doesn’t go to that amount of detail so I can’t answer your question.
The documentation ‘implies’ that everything is in the $HOME folder. I’ve had a look at all the other folders from root downwards but have not seen anything that obviously looks like it belongs to the app.
While waiting for somebody to respond I was thinking of copying the contents of $HOME to another Linux box and try and fire up the application. It should either start ok or tell me what it is missing.
The applications author also supplied the machine and the manual for it has no details of the manufacturer. We sent some photos to several groups and got a response from one of them saying that it was a very early example of a computer controlled model and they did not know that there were any still in existence. When asked about documentation he said that all we would be able to find were some mimeographed sheets which we already had. They have offered to buy it if he decides to replace it which has got my relative thinking.
If the VM is not exposed to incoming traffic by bridged networking, then it’s of no concern.
check vmware’s virtual network settings and see if the vm is using NAT or bridged network.
NAT is default
ofc, this vm should only be used to compile programs and control the milling machine and not browsing the internet
for start and you need to identify all programs and modules (perl? ) required to run the program
file /path/to/executable
ldd /path/to/executable
yep, that’s one way to start looking into this. Use a VM for the experiments.
While I don’t use Fedora Core, the general path to upgrade for most fedora editions is relatively simple. His installation of f17 Core is very far out of date and will require a gradual step process for upgrading since it is now 27 releases behind the current f44.
Since Coreos is an atomic system it is hard to say what the current status of his VM is. If never updated then it would remain as it was originally installed. If it performed automatic updates it may be reasonably current. One thing that may tell us a bit more would be to know which kernel is running. That can be done from a terminal with uname -r.
The current status needs to be identified and taken into account before attempting any updates.
Note that if the VM is still working as original and has had no issues it might be best to simply keep it as-is instead of potentially breaking it with updates. It is, after all, apparently still functioning even though it is 27 fedora release cycles behind the current f44 version.
The major changes in the OS (kernel and everything else) over the past 13 years seems likely to break the currently installed app.
There are probably apps available to perform the same tasks so a bit of research there before leaping off a cliff with upgrades would be ideal.
Note also that a bit of research shows that fedora core 17 was rpm based. It became fedora atomic host with release 24 and migrated to fedora coreos with release 31. Both the latter 2 versions are atomic based so an upgrade to current versions would not be possible without a complete new installation.
Potentially creating a new VM while using fedora server and installing a suitable app to manage the CNC control of the milling machine would be the best approach.
Since I made the original post I have been doing some more reading on docs.fedoraproject.org and can to the conclusion I would have to do at least 14 updates but probably more. 3.3.4-5.fc17.x86_64 i.e If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! He’s been looking for over 7 years but has not yet found anything that comes close. I agree that this would be the way to go IF he can find another app that can work with the machine.
Thanks to everyone for responding to this problem.
I will be informing my relative that the only solution I could come up with is:
Continue with what he has already go as it works and ‘should’ last some time.
Once he has found a replacement cnc machine and software, sell his current cnc to the group that would like it, then purchase the replacement he found.
(It looks as if my original option 3 is partly the correct way to go. The only additional thing I should have included was “Get a new machine as well”.)
I think that we all have spent enough time and energy on this and so I will mark it [SOLVED], perhaps with a question-mark.
