On 11/13/2017 01:10 AM, David Christensen wrote:
On 11/12/17 19:27, Dan Norton wrote:
My first Linux install was about one year ago. After some missteps, I have used Debian 8 in reasonable satisfaction on the desktop during that year. Now I want to leave 8 in place and do a network install for Debian 9 on the same disk and switch back and forth at boot time.

I think your best bet is to migrate from Debian 8 to Debian 9:

1. Image, backup, and/or archive everything. You will especially want to get a copy of the /etc tree onto a USB flash drive so you can see LVM, fstab, etc., configuration settings for mounting the Debian 8 disk under Debian 9.

Please say more about the configuration settings. I back up /home and /var. The git stuff is in /opt and pushed to GitHub. Should the /etc tree be backed up also? How would the settings be used from 9?


2.  Put your bulk data onto a separate drive or a file server/ NAS.

3. If your computer has a spare drive bay, buy a new drive, unplug your old drive, install the new drive, install Debian 9 onto the new drive, reconnect the old drive and mount read-only under Debian 9, and migrate your settings and remaining data from the old drive to the new drive. Your BIOS/UEFI should allow you to boot from either drive during this process. So long as you don't damage the Debian 8 disk, you can always fall back to Debian 8 if the migration goes badly.

4. If you computer does not have a spare drive bay, buy a new drive and a USB external drive enclosure, put your old drive in the enclosure, install the new drive, install Debian 9 onto the new drive, plug in the old drive and mount read-only under Debian 9, and migrate your settings and remaining data from the old drive to the new drive. Again, your BIOS/UEFI should allow you to boot from either drive and you can fall back to Debian 8 if necessary.

Sobering advice - good! Makes me re-think some things. A bit inefficient WRT disk space.
You did say "migrate" and not "upgrade" as I first read. Thanks David.

 - Dan

Reply via email to