begin: Mark K. Kim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> quote
> My Linux has been acting weird for a while... and it's finally gotten
> hosed today (just the root partition, as far as I can tell, though).
> It's incredibly annoying to use alpha/beta kernel modules... at least I
> think that's the source of the problem...
whoa. wait a minute. don't reinstall linux just yet.
what happened?
what makes you think the root partition is hosed?
> I guess I'll reinstall the root
> partition.
>
> But I'm not sure how I can install just the root partition. 'cause the
> "install" option (on Mandrake) would try to *install* RPMs (as opposed to
> *upgrade* RPMs) which may not work properly because there are existing
> RPMs. Which reminds me -- since the root partition is gone, the RPM
> database is also gone, right?
depends. the rpm database, i believe, goes under /var. perhaps
/var/lib/rpm.
> -- so what will happen if I try to
> install/upgrade an RPM and there are existing files from the previous
> install but not registered in the RPM database?
nothing. if you *install* linux, rpm shouldn't check any database which may
exist. installing linux and populating an rpm database is MUCH different
than doing rpm -U a billion times.
pete
ps- you never heard people talk about it, but i always back up /etc.
