Following up ...

...
>
> sysinst fails fails because there is no inode space on /dev and it
> cannot create the ptys. I thought that there might be some other
> problems and abandoned the update of the laptop, switching to a VMware
> virtual machine, which I surely can afford to trash. The install
> problem here was the same, as expected; I was able to complete the
> upgrade of this VM by getting rid of /dev/*raid* and then MAKEDEV
> pty[0-3].
>
...
> I booted once more GENERIC.MPACPI and noticed npx0 is not there, so
> that explains the 'no floating point' message. I will see in a moment
> if this is due to the VMware emulation.

Indeed npx0 attaches to acpi0 with GENERIC.MPACPI, so it was indeed
VMware problem - maybe ACPI just shouldn't be used with it (why
anyway?).

I am running now 4.99.10 reasonably well; some KDE and GNOME
components refuse to play, but I have to verify that this is indeed
linked to the above.

>
> Chavdar
>