Please suggest an upgrade path.
in [General Linux]
|
From: The Natural Philosopher on 26 Mar 2010 05:02 pH wrote: > Hi Folks. > Since you guys are all so knowledgable, please assume that I am drunk > out of my mind and/or woefully ignorant for this post. > > I am using Mandrake 10.1 on a Shuttle computer w/ 512MB. It has a > 2.6GHz Celeron processor and about 75 GB hard drive. > > I have *dial-up* only at about 26 kbaud so have done *no* upgrades. > (all services are turned off). > > I am considering getting a 1TB drive and upgrading the OS, keeping the > 512MB. > > I am thinking of Debian, Centos, Arch, Slackware, Mint, Ubuntu and > Vector as possible upgrades. > > I backup /home to an external drive via rsync. > > If I install a new OS will rsync be able to bring back /home? > Will all he uids be toast? > > Suggestions? > > My knowledge level. on a 1-10 scale is about 3 where 3= good CP/M > familiarity. (ie: I have command-line experience and can fix minor > things, but have *no* linux guru to steer me, just this group, in > general.) > > Pureheart Why do you want to upgrade, and what does the computer actually DO?
From: General Schvantzkoph on 26 Mar 2010 13:34 On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:43:06 -0700, pH wrote: > Hi Folks. > Since you guys are all so knowledgable, please assume that I am drunk > out of my mind and/or woefully ignorant for this post. > > I am using Mandrake 10.1 on a Shuttle computer w/ 512MB. It has a > 2.6GHz Celeron processor and about 75 GB hard drive. > > I have *dial-up* only at about 26 kbaud so have done *no* upgrades. (all > services are turned off). > > I am considering getting a 1TB drive and upgrading the OS, keeping the > 512MB. > > I am thinking of Debian, Centos, Arch, Slackware, Mint, Ubuntu and > Vector as possible upgrades. > > I backup /home to an external drive via rsync. > > If I install a new OS will rsync be able to bring back /home? Will all > he uids be toast? > > Suggestions? > > My knowledge level. on a 1-10 scale is about 3 where 3= good CP/M > familiarity. (ie: I have command-line experience and can fix minor > things, but have *no* linux guru to steer me, just this group, in > general.) > > Pureheart Do an rsync -r -t -l and everything including dates and links will be preserved. If you switch to another distro that assigns different user IDs there are two trivial ways to fix it. You can either do a chown or you can edit /etc/passwd and change the user number. Personally I'd do the chown. If you are going to switch distros I think that your best choice would be CentOS 5.4. Your lack of broadband is the determining factor, you need a distro that needs the fewest possible updates. CentOS is ultra stable so it hardly needs any updates, the leading edge distros like Fedora and Ubuntu have at least a 100x the updates as CentOS. As a desktop distro CentOS will look a little dated but it works just fine, you don't want any of the new eye candy anyway because you don't have the hardware or the Internet access to take advantage of it. BTW I'm pretty sure that Mandriva uses the same user IDs as Redhat, i.e. it starts at 500, so you won't have to do anything to change them.
From: Stefan Patric on 26 Mar 2010 15:17
On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:43:06 -0700, pH wrote: > I am using Mandrake 10.1 on a Shuttle computer w/ 512MB. It has a > 2.6GHz Celeron processor and about 75 GB hard drive. > > I have *dial-up* only at about 26 kbaud so have done *no* upgrades. (all > services are turned off). Most distros these days need to be updated--usually online--after the initial install. Maybe, you can take your Shuttle to a place where you can hook up to a high speed Internet connection that first time. Or start the update over dial-up, and take a two week vacation while it does its thing. ;-) > I am considering getting a 1TB drive and upgrading the OS, keeping the > 512MB. I'm assuming here that the 1TB drive will replace the 75GB one, and not in addition to. With today's distros with exception of the "light" ones like Vector, you should consider upgrading the RAM, too, to at least 1 GB. More would be better, particularly if you'll be running the KDE or GNOME desktops. > I am thinking of Debian, Centos, Arch, Slackware, Mint, Ubuntu and > Vector as possible upgrades. I wouldn't go with Arch. It is a "cutting edge", rolling update distro that requires regular updating for "fixes," improvements, etc. Debian and Slackware would be good general choices for older hardware. I've got Debian Etch running on a 10 year old Thinkpad 240X (500MHz Pentium & 192MB RAM) with the XFCE desktop, and it works just fine. Their primary development philosophy is stability above all else. So, they don't require updating as frequently as cutting edge distros like Arch or Fedora. Mint and Ubuntu split the difference: A little more "modern" than Debian and Slackware, but not cutting edge. Vector is specifically targeted toward running well on older, resource limited hardware. If you're considering CentOS, take a look at Scientific Linux, too. http://www.scientificlinux.org/ Both are free versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.x recompiled from the same code base--Fedora Core 6--which debuted about 6 years ago about the same time as the release of Mandrake 10, but due to constant support, both distros are as contemporary as the code will permit. Be aware, however, that both are primarily designed as servers OSes, but they can easily be set up as standard multi-user desktop systems. They both aim for stability and long support lives--years. Also, RHEL 6 is reportedly due out the latter part of this year, and it is rumored will be based on the Fedora 12 and/or 13 code base. So, will be thoroughly "modern". If so, CentOS 6 and SL6 will most likely be released a month later. I am considering making one or the other my next OS. I currently use Fedora 12 64-bit having been with Fedora since Core 3. However, I'm now looking for longevity in an OS. I'm tiring of having to upgrade every 15 months when support is stopped. > I backup /home to an external drive via rsync. > > If I install a new OS will rsync be able to bring back /home? Will all > he uids be toast? UIDs won't carry over. I wouldn't recommend recreating the /home partition that way. The data won't be a problem; it's all the configuration files. The old ones probably won't be 100% compatible to the ones required by the new OS. You'll need to check. B |