From: "Don" dnrlinux@san.rr.com To: fedora-test-list@redhat.com Subject: RE: upgrade from RH9 to Fedora Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 10:44:22 -0800 Reply-To: fedora-test-list@redhat.com
Scott, I like to do "clean installs" too... I did that when I installed FCT2 and FCT3, and will when FC1 is out as well. Right now I don't care if I reformat the entire drive... I bought a second drive just for the purpose of running Linux.... but when Linux starts actually replacing my Windows system, I won't have the luxury of simply reformatting the entire disk....
What do you do to preserve the contents of /home and other directories?
I wish there were an option in the install process that allowed "everything to be wiped out" except for the user stuff. I suspect this is easier said that done though because apps might have a tendency to put stuff in various directories... like maybe a certain app installs fonts it needs.... I might not want those put in the X11 directory, but that might be "convenient" for the app....
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Do what I do, Create a separate partition for the /home directory, then you could format the other partitions before installing FC1. That way you preserve all your data as well as the other stuff you want to keep like downloads.
Mike
On Wednesday 05 November 2003 23:11, Mike Lurk wrote:
From: "Don" dnrlinux@san.rr.com To: fedora-test-list@redhat.com Subject: RE: upgrade from RH9 to Fedora Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 10:44:22 -0800 Reply-To: fedora-test-list@redhat.com
Scott, I like to do "clean installs" too... I did that when I installed FCT2 and FCT3, and will when FC1 is out as well. Right now I don't care if I reformat the entire drive... I bought a second drive just for the purpose of running Linux.... but when Linux starts actually replacing my Windows system, I won't have the luxury of simply reformatting the entire disk....
What do you do to preserve the contents of /home and other directories?
I wish there were an option in the install process that allowed "everything to be wiped out" except for the user stuff. I suspect this is easier said that done though because apps might have a tendency to put stuff in various directories... like maybe a certain app installs fonts it needs.... I might not want those put in the X11 directory, but that might be "convenient" for the app....
Do what I do, Create a separate partition for the /home directory, then you could format the other partitions before installing FC1. That way you preserve all your data as well as the other stuff you want to keep like downloads.
Mike
If you placed your /home and /usr/local in separate partition (as I do, and Mike did), then you can instruct the installer to format everything else :) When I add my own stuff in the box, I put it under /usr/local. If you however have something in /var/named /var/www/ or anything like these, you'll have to preserve it yourself. I don't see an easy way...
The hard way is when booting RedHat 8/9 and surely Fedora 1 you have a shell at tty2 press Alt-F2, mount your old system and rm -rf everything except the data you wish preserved, unmount and then go back installing. I have /var on separate partition too, but there are things like rpmdb that have to be removed by hand just to make sure :)
And at last, after installing the new system you can ask rpm (rpm -qf <this>) what the heel is <this> file or directory, and if there are no bugs it should be able to answer with the package name. If not, and if you don't know what this file/dir is doing there, it's at least 99% certain you can remove it. This way I 'cleaned' my system when I did 'make install' by mistake... but this is the 'hardest' way I can think of ;)