a) Did a full backup of my drive using Retrospect
b) Ran disk utility to fix disk permissions
c) applied any updates (I had a few outstanding) via software update panel
d) Repeated Step B again
e) Did the "Upgrade" of Panther. All went well.
I did an archive and install and couldn't open up terminal or login through >console.
before the upgrade, my shell was /usr/local/bin/bash (I installed it). I had to adjust netinfo to use /bin/bash so I can use terminal (as /usr/local/bin/bash disappeared)
I did something silimar (used CCC), but in 10.4, Safari will not run - crashes every time I start it. Spotlight is indexing my drive now - can't wait for that!