On Sun, 30 Jun 2002 14:31:55 +0900, Pascal Goguey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > You will notice the benefit to separate /home /opt and /etc directories
> > when
> > you upgrade to Mandrake 9.0.
>
> Yes, the advantage of having /home, /opt, and /etc _DIRECTORIES_,
> as you write yourself, no doubt about that. But is there any benefit
> of having these on different _PARTITIONS_?
You can't separate /etc because it contains important information that is needed
at boot (i.e. /etc/fstab). It needs to be part of the / partition.
Separating things into different partitions can give you greater
fault-tolerance. If you put everything into one big partition and it gets
corrupted, you'll probably lose everything (assuming a fsck doesn't fix it). If
your /tmp filesystem gets trashed somehow (e.g. it overflows or is corrupted),
and it is separated from the rest of the system, you can easily recover. You may
also gain a little extra speed, but not enough to be noticeable.
> > Performing an 'upgrade' to a distro is still not
> > as reliable as users would like, and many people are more comfortable
> > with a
> > fresh install right down to reformatting the partitions.
>
> But if you want to install, you don't have to reformat the partition.
> The installer
> will install every file (thus replacing all the files having the same
> name), and
> it will work exactly as it would on a clean partition, the only
> difference being
> that the files that are not use anymore would still remain. as far as
> the installer
> installs all the necessary files, I cann't see any reason that could
> make it less
> reliable than a clean (i.e. with formatting) install.
> As for upgrade, you may be right. It depends how the upgrade is done,
> which
> files are kept and which ones are overwritten...
This is a real problem with RPM-based distros. The Debian distros can upgrade
all they want with no problem. In fact, you only need to install Debian once.
After that you can upgrade as often as you wish.
> > If you have just one
> > big '/' partition that would mean you would lose all your user data in
> > /home,
>
> Only if you reformat.
> I use Mandrake's default formatting, so in case of installing a new
> version,
> I format the partition in order to clean everything, but it's not
> mandatory.
I put everything in one big partition (my HDD is too small to do otherwise).
When it comes to upgrading, I boot with a rescue disc and mount my GNU/Linux
partition. I delete all directories except /home, reboot, and do a full
installation of Mandrake without formatting anything. The installer sees that
/home already exists, and it doesn't mess it up.
> BeOS used a single partition and it was perfectly possible to install
> without formatting, and without loosing your previous settings.
I always wanted to try out BeOS, but by the time I was ready to install it the
company was ready to fold :( I guess I'll wait and see how the BeOS clones like
OpenBeOS develop before trying those.
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan
"I once preached peaceful coexistence with Windows.
You may laugh at my expense -- I deserve it."
-- Jean-Louis Gass�e, founder of BeOS
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Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
