Please suggest an upgrade path.
in [General Linux]
|
From: pH on 26 Mar 2010 00:43 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
From: Harald Meyer on 26 Mar 2010 01:51 pH wrote: > I backup /home to an external drive via rsync. > > If I install a new OS will rsync be able to bring back /home? Yes, but it will be faster to copy it from the internal 512M drive if you keep it anyway. > Will all he uids be toast? Different Distros use different uids for system accounts, different groups and stuff, so don't keep your old /etc/passwd but create new user accounts and chown the existing /home/* Harald
From: Bit Twister on 26 Mar 2010 02:10 On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:43:06 -0700 (PDT), pH wrote: > > I have *dial-up* only at about 26 kbaud so have done *no* upgrades. > (all services are turned off). Then you need to research if any of the other distributions need to call home to complete the install. > I backup /home to an external drive via rsync. > If I install a new OS will rsync be able to bring back /home? Yes, but why. What are you trying to save. Emails, I would export them. Do not bother with desktop settings, none will migrate. > Will all he uids be toast? Well, have seen Mandriva start at 500, go to 501, back to 500, installed xguest causing next uid start at 501, moved xguest to 10000 screwing next UID to be out of sync with GID. Some distributions start at 1000. My solution, always create a junk account during install so I do not care what the UID/GID are and all users are created starting at 1500. That allows me to partition a ~20 gig partition for each distribution I install and share my /account/$USER in each distribution via a link back to /distribution/home/$USER.
From: Harald Meyer on 26 Mar 2010 02:32 Bit Twister wrote: >> If I install a new OS will rsync be able to bring back /home? > > Yes, but why. What are you trying to save. Years of work? Some people actually have data in their home directorys.. > Do not bother with desktop settings, none will migrate. Most do, IME. Harald
From: Bit Twister on 26 Mar 2010 02:50
On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 07:32:30 +0100, Harald Meyer wrote: > Years of work? Some people actually have data in their home directorys.. Not me, I put them directories outside of home for easy backup/restore. >> Do not bother with desktop settings, none will migrate. > > Most do, IME. Ah, but there are a completely different settings/setup for kde4. OP is coming from a Mandrake 10.1 release that is years old. I know had to delete all my 10.1 desktop shortcuts and recreate them somewhere about 1009.1 release. As a matter of fact, I had a kde4 release which would lockup when I restored a previous kde4 release desktop settings. |