Upgrading RHEL 8 to RHEL 8.1

Needed to reboot my Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 desktop anyway, so decided to upgrade it to RHEL 8.1.

Check That Your Software Subscription is Active

For example, I realised that I have still been using the RHEL 8 beta subscription instead of the Developers License. After completing Red Hat subscription registration, I got the following:

greys@redhat:~ $ sudo subscription-manager list
 +-------------------------------------------+
     Installed Product Status
 +-------------------------------------------+
 Product Name:   Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64
 Product ID:     479
 Version:        8.1
 Arch:           x86_64
 Status:         Subscribed
 Status Details:
 Starts:         14/11/19
 Ends:           13/11/20

Upgrade Red Hat OS with yum-update

yum tools are more integrated that many people though! So I'm still using yum update instead of dnf:

root@redhat:~ # yum update
 Updating Subscription Management repositories.
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 for x86_64 - AppStream (RPMs)                                                              2.6 kB/s | 4.5 kB     00:01
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 for x86_64 - AppStream (RPMs)                                                              3.0 MB/s |  13 MB     00:04
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 for x86_64 - BaseOS (RPMs)                                                                 2.4 kB/s | 4.1 kB     00:01
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 for x86_64 - BaseOS (RPMs)                                                                 2.4 MB/s |  12 MB     00:04
 Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:01 ago on Thu 14 Nov 2019 21:28:59 GMT.
 Dependencies resolved.
  Package                                        Arch      Version                                           Repository                           Size
 Installing:
  yum-utils                                      noarch    4.0.8-3.el8                                       rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms        64 k
      replacing  dnf-utils.noarch 4.0.2.2-3.el8
  kernel-debug-devel                             x86_64    4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1                              rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms        14 M
  kernel-devel                                   x86_64    4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1                              rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms        13 M
  kernel-core                                    x86_64    4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1                              rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms        25 M
  kernel                                         x86_64    4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1                              rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms       1.5 M
  kernel-modules                                 x86_64    4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1                              rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms        22 M
 Upgrading:
  netcf-libs                                     x86_64    0.2.8-12.module+el8.1.0+4066+0f1aadab             rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms     77 k
  libXt                                          x86_64    1.1.5-12.el8                                      rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms    185 k
  alsa-utils                                     x86_64    1.1.9-1.el8                                       rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms    1.1 M
...
  podman-manpages                                noarch    1.4.2-5.module+el8.1.0+4240+893c1ab8              rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms    180 k
  python3-pip-wheel                              noarch    9.0.3-15.el8                                      rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms       1.2 M
  mozjs60                                        x86_64    60.9.0-3.el8                                      rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms       6.7 M
  libssh-config                                  noarch    0.9.0-4.el8                                       rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms        18 k
  python3-setuptools-wheel                       noarch    39.2.0-5.el8                                      rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms       289 k
 Installing weak dependencies:
  oddjob-mkhomedir                               x86_64    0.34.4-7.el8                                      rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms     52 k
  libvarlink                                     x86_64    18-3.el8                                          rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms        44 k
 Transaction Summary
 Install   17 Packages
 Upgrade  646 Packages
 Total download size: 1.2 G
 Is this ok [y/N]:

Some 15min later I had my desktop in a much better shape:

...
   sos-3.7-6.el8_1.noarch
   hwdata-0.314-8.2.el8_1.noarch
   ca-certificates-2019.2.32-80.0.el8_1.noarch
   microcode_ctl-4:20190618-1.20191112.1.el8_1.x86_64
   kernel-tools-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64
   kernel-headers-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64
   bpftool-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64
   kernel-tools-libs-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64
   python3-perf-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64
 Installed:
   yum-utils-4.0.8-3.el8.noarch                                            kernel-debug-devel-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64
   kernel-devel-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64                                kernel-core-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64
   kernel-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64                                      kernel-modules-4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64
   oddjob-mkhomedir-0.34.4-7.el8.x86_64                                    libvarlink-18-3.el8.x86_64
   python3-argcomplete-1.9.3-6.el8.noarch                                  oddjob-0.34.4-7.el8.x86_64
   tbb-2018.2-9.el8.x86_64                                                 gnome-shell-extension-horizontal-workspaces-3.32.1-10.el8.noarch
   podman-manpages-1.4.2-5.module+el8.1.0+4240+893c1ab8.noarch             python3-pip-wheel-9.0.3-15.el8.noarch
   mozjs60-60.9.0-3.el8.x86_64                                             libssh-config-0.9.0-4.el8.noarch
   python3-setuptools-wheel-39.2.0-5.el8.noarch
 Complete!
 root@redhat:~ #

And that's it! I rebooted the server and my OS is RHEL 8.1 now:

greys@redhat:~ $ more /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 8.1 (Ootpa)
greys@redhat:~ $ uname -a
Linux redhat 4.18.0-147.0.3.el8_1.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Nov 11 12:58:36 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

See Also

• Red Hat Linux
• RHEL 8 Reference
• screenFetch in RHEL 8
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.1 released
• Linux Commands

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