On Fri, 23 Oct 2009, John Jason Jordan wrote: > Then there's the issue of user configurations. Sure, config files > for applications are in ~/, but what about the configurations for > the desktop and for Ubuntu itself? And do those application config > files include all the plugins, add-ons and extensions? Will Firefox > remember the theme and plugins I have installed? Will Openoffice.org > find my Zotero library so I can add a reference to a term paper?
The easiest way I've found to check this sort of thing is to create a new user account on the machine, log into it, and see what works and doesn't work. It's amazing what problems will disappear once you have a clean home directory. :-) It's also amazing what things don't work... That doesn't fix all your problems, of course, but it'll give you a good idea of what is functional and/or dysfunctional with your current user-specific configurations and workarounds. > Of course, I will do a full backup beforehand. In fact, I will do it > several times - to a hard disk, to DVDs, and again to the hard disk > using a different backup strategy. Perhaps $$ is really tight for you these days, but if it's not you can a) buy an external enclosure for your current hard drive, and b) buy a new hard drive to install your new OS. Once you've got the new OS installed, then mount your old hard drive and copy what you need to your new /etc, /home, or whatever. Plus, you can always chroot yourself into the old environment to do things like query your old apt database or see what library versions are used by your old binaries. If the new hard drive is considerably larger than the old one, you can even dd the old drive to a file on your new one -- and mount/chroot it just as you would an external drive. -- Paul Heinlein <> [email protected] <> www.madboa.com _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
