I have a box with suse 8.0 that just failed because I think it lost the partition table, or was hacked and etc was rm'd. I also have a backup box with suse 7.3 that was a backup, and is now my main box until I fix the first one. I also had two suse 7.3 servers running. But we all know that suse recently stopped supporting 7.3. I looked at some of the archived posts on usenet/google, and it looks like installing a new distro from scratch is the preferred method of updating. Since I need to run a few servers (apache, bind, ntp, and a few others) and don't need re-install headaches, and am not a guru on linux just yet, I planned on switching to debian because of the apt package manager (I've had trouble with rpm's on various applications with suse), and because once debian is installed, that's it. No reinstallation headaches, no purchasing additional distros, etc. I also have a friend that will be running the dns server on the box, and his preference is debian as well, and he will help with maintenance of the box. He previously helped with the suse 7.3 setup. What is the preferred procedure for updating a box? Let's say I have suse 7.3. Now that suse 8.2 is out, what would be the preferred way to update the 7.3 install? I read that users going from 8.0 to 8.1 sometimes didn't work out, 7.3 to 8.0 or 7.3 to 8.1 the same problems, etc. If I make the investment to install suse 8.2 now, what will be the procedure to move to suse 8.3 or 9.0 in the near future? Wipe everything and reinstall? Or will I be able to apt-get upgrade suse 8.3? I took a look at the upgrade procedure on suse's site. replacing the base packages first... I looked for the base packages, but it was too hard to figure out. And how do I do it if I can't do it on a running system? I have been able to compile kernels in the past, so I have just a bit more knowledge than a newbie. But I'm not a programmer, and tech isn't my vocation. I liked my suse 8.0 desktop, and suse 8.2 looks good from the reports. But I can't afford to pay for a full distro every six months. Leaving this aside, what is the preferred method for updating a box? What is the preferred partition setup? Separate /home partition is obvious, what else? Bing. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All spam received is reported to http://spamcop.net Any spam designed to avoid spamcop processing is processed and reported manually to all the isps in the headers. Don't send it. I don't respond to it.