[opensuse] fresh clean install - but use *old* /home - opinions / howto
Up to and including 11.1-x86-64 I have always installed a new suse version in a clean partition, but I also used a fresh copy of my old /home dir. This appears to cause some sporadic problems to some, i never experienced any myself, but then again I have not used kde4, i am still with 3, my trusty old dinosaur. but that will change in the not too distant future, so i ask: what is the consensus these days on /home? if the recommendation is to start with a fresh /home, how does one transfer things like kmail, addressbook and organizer/contact content and a host of other shtuff accumulated over time? is there a recommended list of transferrables and/or transfer proceedures? how about a "must start from scratch" list? tia d. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 08 October 2009 05:01:23 pm kanenas@hawaii.rr.com wrote:
Up to and including 11.1-x86-64 I have always installed a new suse version in a clean partition, but I also used a fresh copy of my old /home dir. This appears to cause some sporadic problems to some, i never experienced any myself, but then again I have not used kde4, i am still with 3, my trusty old dinosaur. but that will change in the not too distant future, so i ask: what is the consensus these days on /home? if the recommendation is to start with a fresh /home, how does one transfer things like kmail, addressbook and organizer/contact content and a host of other shtuff accumulated over time? is there a recommended list of transferrables and/or transfer proceedures? how about a "must start from scratch" list? tia d.
No need to start from scratch. Just use your old home. What I would do is install 11.1 or 11.2 and SET IT TO BOOT TO RUNLEVEL 3. Let the install finish, and then roll in your old home directory. Then edit /etc/inittab or use yast runlevel editor to change the default to runlevel 5 and you should be done. The key is to roll the home directory in before you start kde4 because I know it will pull a lot of your kde3 settings in. What I don't know is whether these checks are one-time-only (on first start up) or if these checks are done each time. So if I wanted to make certain as much of the kde3 config as possible was picked up by kde4, that's the approach I would take. Others may have a different approach, but starting with the kde4.3-beta releases, this has worked well. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 08 October 2009 04:30:17 pm David C. Rankin wrote:
On Thursday 08 October 2009 05:01:23 pm kanenas@hawaii.rr.com wrote:
Up to and including 11.1-x86-64 I have always installed a new suse version in a clean partition, but I also used a fresh copy of my old /home dir. This appears to cause some sporadic problems to some, i never experienced any myself, but then again I have not used kde4, i am still with 3, my trusty old dinosaur. but that will change in the not too distant future, so i ask: what is the consensus these days on /home? if the recommendation is to start with a fresh /home, how does one transfer things like kmail, addressbook and organizer/contact content and a host of other shtuff accumulated over time? is there a recommended list of transferrables and/or transfer proceedures? how about a "must start from scratch" list? tia d.
No need to start from scratch. Just use your old home. What I would do is install 11.1 or 11.2 and SET IT TO BOOT TO RUNLEVEL 3. Let the install finish, and then roll in your old home directory.
by this you mean manual editing of /etc/fstab to change where /home is? I usually do that just as a precaution when i ahave no room for a backup of /home!
Then edit /etc/inittab or use yast runlevel editor to change the default to runlevel 5 and you should be done.
The key is to roll the home directory in before you start kde4
THAT'S THE TIP, thanks:))))
because I know it will pull a lot of your kde3 settings in. What I don't know is whether these checks are one-time-only (on first start up) or if these checks are done each time. So if I wanted to make certain as much of the kde3 config as possible was picked up by kde4, that's the approach I would take. Others may have a different approach, but starting with the kde4.3-beta releases, this has worked well.
my experience with 4 has not been good ; whenever i tried it i gave up after 1/2 hour, did that 3-4x. lately it seems that there has been some effort to work with the user, so there is at least an appearance of progress and i am wondering if i could gain anything by moving up (down?) to it once more... thanks again for the tip:)
-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com
-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Friday 09 October 2009 12:53:14 pm kanenas@hawaii.rr.com wrote:
by this you mean manual editing of /etc/fstab to change where /home is? I usually do that just as a precaution when i ahave no room for a backup of /home!
No, I mean edit /etc/inittab and change the 3 to a 5 here: # The default runlevel is defined here id:5:initdefault: ^ This is the actual setting that determines which runlevel you box boot into. If you have it set to runlevel 3 during install, your line will look like this: id:3:initdefault: To set it to boot to runlevel 5, make it look like this: id:5:initdefault: -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 2009/10/10 19:18 (GMT-0500) David C. Rankin composed:
I mean edit /etc/inittab and change the 3 to a 5 here:
# The default runlevel is defined here id:5:initdefault: ^
This is the actual setting that determines which runlevel you box boot into. If you have it set to runlevel 3 during install, your line will look like this:
id:3:initdefault:
To set it to boot to runlevel 5, make it look like this:
id:5:initdefault:
Or, make it obvious what runlevel you'll start at by putting your normal one as the last character of your default Grub menu stanza (or all of them, or different ones on different stanzas): title ... root... kernel...showopts splash=off vga=0x317 5 initrd... This way you'll know at each boot what you'll get, plus be able to easily select another for each boot you . -- " A patriot without religion . . . is as great a paradox, as an honest man without the fear of God. . . . 2nd U.S. President, John Adams Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Saturday 10 October 2009 02:18:27 pm David C. Rankin wrote:
On Friday 09 October 2009 12:53:14 pm kanenas@hawaii.rr.com wrote:
by this you mean manual editing of /etc/fstab to change where /home is? I usually do that just as a precaution when i ahave no room for a backup of /home!
No,
I mean edit /etc/inittab and change the 3 to a 5 here:
# The default runlevel is defined here id:5:initdefault: ^
This is the actual setting that determines which runlevel you box boot into. If you have it set to runlevel 3 during install, your line will look like this:
id:3:initdefault:
To set it to boot to runlevel 5, make it look like this:
id:5:initdefault:
-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com
actually my comments about /etc/fstab are about setting and/or changing the /home location, to "roll in " my selected dir.. I assumed that booting to run level 3 was kind of obvious. d. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
At 09:30 PM 10/8/2009 -0500, David C. Rankin wrote:
On Thursday 08 October 2009 05:01:23 pm kanenas@hawaii.rr.com wrote:
Up to and including 11.1-x86-64 I have always installed a new suse version in a clean partition, but I also used a fresh copy of my old /home dir. This appears to cause some sporadic problems to some, i never experienced any myself, but then again I have not used kde4, i am still with 3, my trusty old dinosaur. but that will change in the not too distant future, so i ask: what is the consensus these days on /home? if the recommendation is to start with a fresh /home, how does one transfer things like kmail, addressbook and organizer/contact content and a host of other shtuff accumulated over time? is there a recommended list of transferrables and/or transfer proceedures? how about a "must start from scratch" list? tia d.
No need to start from scratch. Just use your old home. What I would do is install 11.1 or 11.2 and SET IT TO BOOT TO RUNLEVEL 3. Let the install finish, and then roll in your old home directory. Then edit /etc/inittab or use yast runlevel editor to change the default to runlevel 5 and you should be done.
The key is to roll the home directory in before you start kde4 because I know it will pull a lot of your kde3 settings in. What I don't know is whether these checks are one-time-only (on first start up) or if these checks are done each time. So if I wanted to make certain as much of the kde3 config as possible was picked up by kde4, that's the approach I would take. Others may have a different approach, but starting with the kde4.3-beta releases, this has worked well.
I apologise for leaving the whole correspondence above, but I thought it wise to let everyone have the essence of the question. My problem, is that I don't quite understand the answer. If you install a new version, doesn't that wipe out the whole drive? If you just "install" as the responder suggests, isn't the old /home wiped out? How do you "roll in" your old home directory? BTW, I will probably install Kubuntu, rather than SuSE, as from what I am reading here, it's better. (Wearing asbestos suit!) --doug -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Friday 09 October 2009 02:14:29 pm Doug McGarrett wrote:
At 09:30 PM 10/8/2009 -0500, David C. Rankin wrote:
On Thursday 08 October 2009 05:01:23 pm kanenas@hawaii.rr.com wrote:
Up to and including 11.1-x86-64 I have always installed a new suse version in a clean partition, but I also used a fresh copy of my old /home dir. This appears to cause some sporadic problems to some, i never experienced any myself, but then again I have not used kde4, i am still with 3, my trusty old dinosaur. but that will change in the not too distant future, so i ask: what is the consensus these days on /home? if the recommendation is to start with a fresh /home, how does one transfer things like kmail, addressbook and organizer/contact content and a host of other shtuff accumulated over time? is there a recommended list of transferrables and/or transfer proceedures? how about a "must start from scratch" list? tia d.
No need to start from scratch. Just use your old home. What I would do is install 11.1 or 11.2 and SET IT TO BOOT TO RUNLEVEL 3. Let the install
finish,
and then roll in your old home directory. Then edit /etc/inittab or use yast runlevel editor to change the default to runlevel 5 and you should be done.
The key is to roll the home directory in before you start kde4 because I
know
it will pull a lot of your kde3 settings in. What I don't know is whether these checks are one-time-only (on first start up) or if these checks are
done
each time. So if I wanted to make certain as much of the kde3 config as possible was picked up by kde4, that's the approach I would take. Others may have a different approach, but starting with the kde4.3-beta releases, this has worked well.
I apologise for leaving the whole correspondence above, but I thought it wise to let everyone have the essence of the question. My problem, is that I don't quite understand the answer. If you install a new version, doesn't that wipe out the whole drive? If you just "install" as the responder suggests, isn't the old /home wiped out? How do you "roll in" your old home directory?
BTW, I will probably install Kubuntu, rather than SuSE, as from what I am reading here, it's better. (Wearing asbestos suit!)
--doug
doug, it is wiser to install rooot (/) in a separate partition. Many also use separate partitions for /usr, /var and other major "subdirectories" of a linucs install. and there are some brave souls who use the same /home partition with not only different versions of one distro, they also jump to other distro's. The theory goes that if you run kde 3 or 4, you could check your kmail in suse 10.3 in the morning, fedora in the afternoon and 11.2 factory at night!!! all you need is different / partitions, a good grub (lilo?) and a proper /etc/fstab, set up during the installation process, modified by booting to a console. d. d. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (4)
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David C. Rankin -
Doug McGarrett -
Felix Miata -
kanenas＠hawaii.rr.com