On Saturday 05 January 2002 10:38 am, Randy Kramer wrote:
> My theory is that if you install (I don't mean upgrade) Linux on top
> of an existing installation, the new installation does not totally
> wipe out the previous installation, and, under the right
> circumstances, if you had problems with the previous installation,
> you may have those same (or similar) problems with the new
> installation. If you take certain steps during the installation, you
> can avoid this problem.
Well, my opinons on this subject aren't popular, but that never
stopped me ;> I always do a fresh install. I reformat my partition
(I install everthing to one big ReiserFS '/ ' mount point [yep, that
includes /boot, et al]). So I never save an old stale junked up /home,
or /usr, or /var.... Bottom line is I don't have any problems that go
along with keeping a bunch of stale, sometimes conflicting, usually
extraneous files, specially configs.
I just did a re-install to 8.2 (cooker alpha). I saved my home
directory to a spare RFS partition. I also saved a few configs, eg,
bashrc, X11/fs/config, fstab, rc.local, etc. to have a reference for my
customizations. I don't need to save personal/data type files, 'cause I
write 'em to my spare partition in the first place and backup real
important ones on my other windoze drive.
All'n all, it took less than an hour to cautiously move back in
_some_ of my /home and config files, including mail and newsgroup
folders, so that the new 8.2 system looked and acted just as the
8.1+cooker system I wiped. I suspect most problems people have with
upgrading/installing can be attributed to tryin to save a bunch of old
junk, and use it on a new install. Specially their /home dir.
Y'allsMMV
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
