Upgrade or New Install Mandrake 9.1?

[Jaywalker]

I've just ordered my new Mandrake 9.1 disks, and am to decide whether it's best to new-install or to upgrade. Any advice?

Whether I upgrade or install, I'll need to back up my data first. Is it as simple as just copying /home to another partition?

Jaywalker

[andysimmons]

Yeah, it's as simple as copying /home to another partition, assuming all of the same software is reinstalled with the OS. A fresh installation is generally better than an upgrade whenever possible.

[o0zi]

A fresh installation is better because it removes all the clutter you've accumulated, but make sure you don't erase your /home partition while repartitioning.

[mdwatts]

IMHO... Always do a clean install unless there are specific reasons for performing a upgrade.

I would never do a upgrade for any Linux distro OR Windows version as I do not trust the upgrade process and would rather backup what I need, format, install the new OS and then restore what is required from my backup.

[Jaywalker]

Okay, a new install it is, thanks.

I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around how to "restore" /home, however. There I'll be with a fresh install and a new /home; deleting the new /home and copying over the old home into its place doesn't sound right. (Is it a good idea to delete the active /home?)

Also, with a new install of a new version, I can't be sure that the same software will be on the new version that was on the old, even if I remembered exactly what was on the old - which I don't. What am I missing?

If this is old stuff, a hint or two of key words for searching will help. I appreciate your help.

Jaywalker

[o0zi]

Put your /home directory on another partition, so for instance if you're user foo, your partition looks like this:

/foo

Then in the install, mount the drive on the /home directory, and you won't have to move everything over.

[andysimmons]

Also, because I don't trust user-friendly distros, here's one thing I would personally do to make sure nothing's changed for your account...don't set up your old username again during the new installation. If you're forced to set up a regular user, make up something and you can delete that account later.

Before you reinstall, type this as root:grep your_username /etc/passwdRecord that output. After you reinstall, log in as root again, and add the output of the above command to /etc/passwd. You should be able to log in as you, and shouldn't notice anything different.

[Jaywalker]

o0zi,
Just to clarify, you're suggesting that I copy /home content on hdb7 to hdb10, maybe, so that it exists both places, then during the install mount hdb10 as /home? That leaves hdb7 either empty (if I formatted it), or existing as another /home (if I didn't format it). Right?

Andy,
Sorry, I'm missing why this is a good thing. When you say "username," you do mean one of the ordinary users, right? I have it set up with three ordinary users and "su," so I'd do this three times? This would then give me the same passwords, but different user names?

I think I'm still missing something basic.

Jaywalker

[o0zi]

If hdb7 already contains /home - and nothing else - then there's no need to copy it. Just don't erase hdb7 and mount it as /home.

If hdb7 has other stuff besides /home, copy /home to hdb10 so there's nothing else on hdb10, and format hdb7. This is a useful step because it means you have a separate /home partition, so for any distro you install you can have your user settings.

[Jaywalker]

Clear, thank you. Partition hdb7 is /home alone :p , set up that way just so I could upgrade. (I'm still going to back it up, just in case.)

Jaywalker

[andysimmons]

Hi Jay. Sorry to confuse you...I actually don't know if Mandrake will mess this up or not, I just don't trust them not to give you a clean (meaning empty) ~ when you add a user with whatever tool they provide. That passwd file contains info about your home dir, shell, group, etc. So if you use one that was working fine before, you won't need to worry about anything changing.

[Jaywalker]

Andy,
Thanks for clarifying. The confusion is mine. I'm still getting accustomed to an OS that looks for files and uses what it finds rather than insisting that it put them in place during installation.

Jaywalker