It took a while but i eventually managed to upgrade fedora 7 -> 8 via yum. I recommend anyone having trouble to read
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/YumUpgradeFaq
rather than the many howto's i saw that missed some important steps.
I'm still having some trouble with the avahi.i386 package. According to yum it conflict with the x86_64 package and I'm not sure how to resolve this. Having struggled with plugin for 64bit firefox i uninstalled it and tried to install the 32bit version, but as it has avahi as a dependancy i can't.
i can't uninstall avahi.x86_64 as have the OS rest on it. Can anyone help me with this?
# yum install firefox
Loading "fastestmirror" plugin
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package firefox.i386 0:2.0.0.10-1.fc8 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libgnome-2.so.0 for package: firefox
--> Processing Dependency: libgnomevfs-2.so.0 for package: firefox
--> Processing Dependency: libbonoboui-2.so.0 for package: firefox
--> Processing Dependency: libgnomeui-2.so.0 for package: firefox
---> Package firefox.x86_64 0:2.0.0.10-1.fc8 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libgnome.i386 0:2.20.1-2.fc8 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-vfs2.i386 0:2.20.1-1.fc8 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libavahi-glib.so.1 for package: gnome-vfs2
--> Processing Dependency: libhal.so.1 for package: gnome-vfs2
--> Processing Dependency: libavahi-client.so.3 for package: gnome-vfs2
--> Processing Dependency: libavahi-common.so.3 for package: gnome-vfs2
--> Processing Dependency: libhal-storage.so.1 for package: gnome-vfs2
--> Processing Dependency: libdbus-glib-1.so.2 for package: gnome-vfs2
---> Package libbonoboui.i386 0:2.20.0-1.fc8 set to be updated
---> Package libgnomeui.i386 0:2.20.1.1-1.fc8 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libgnome-keyring.so.0 for package: libgnomeui
--> Running transaction check
---> Package avahi.i386 0:0.6.21-6.fc8 set to be updated
---> Package hal-libs.i386 0:0.5.10-1.fc8 set to be updated
---> Package avahi-glib.i386 0:0.6.21-6.fc8 set to be updated
---> Package dbus-glib.i386 0:0.73-4.fc8 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-keyring.i386 0:2.20.1-3.fc8 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================== ===========================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================== ===========================
Installing:
firefox i386 2.0.0.10-1.fc8 updates 21 M
firefox x86_64 2.0.0.10-1.fc8 updates 20 M
Installing for dependencies:
avahi i386 0.6.21-6.fc8 fedora 235 k
avahi-glib i386 0.6.21-6.fc8 fedora 16 k
dbus-glib i386 0.73-4.fc8 fedora 160 k
gnome-keyring i386 2.20.1-3.fc8 fedora 210 k
gnome-vfs2 i386 2.20.1-1.fc8 updates 1.1 M
hal-libs i386 0.5.10-1.fc8 fedora 60 k
libbonoboui i386 2.20.0-1.fc8 fedora 352 k
libgnome i386 2.20.1-2.fc8 fedora 966 k
libgnomeui i386 2.20.1.1-1.fc8 fedora 1.0 M
Transaction Summary
================================================== ===========================
Install 11 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 46 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
...
(1/1): firefox-2.0.0.10-1 100% |=========================| 20 MB 01:06
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Check Error:
file /etc/avahi/avahi-daemon.conf from install of avahi-0.6.21-6.fc8.i386 conflicts with file from package avahi-0.6.17-1.fc7.x86_64
file /etc/rc.d/init.d/avahi-daemon from install of avahi-0.6.21-6.fc8.i386 conflicts with file from package avahi-0.6.17-1.fc7.x86_64
file /usr/share/man/man5/avahi-daemon.conf.5.gz from install of avahi-0.6.21-6.fc8.i386 conflicts with file from package avahi-0.6.17-1.fc7.x86_64
file /usr/share/avahi/service-types.db from install of avahi-0.6.21-6.fc8.i386 conflicts with file from package avahi-0.6.21-6.fc8.x86_64
Error Summary
-------------
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