Linux Mint Forums

Hi, looking for a risk analysis for the following:

I have LMDE (installed at 9, brought to 10 via updates) installed on a 64-bit capable machine. /home is on its own partition. I'm not sure if there are any risks or possible downsides to just installing LMDE 64bit on top of the 32bit partition and re-using home. After that, should all the config files work the same? I should probably also backup some stuff in /etc/ (ssh keys, openvpn server configs, nx server, etc.)

I tried sharing homedirs between distributions before (LM10 and Fedora14) and had issues, so I'm gun-shy about trying this. Do I have anything to fear?

Thanks,

wjstarrsiii

Risks, yes. Every I frequently format, and always just start with a new home profile.
The folders which you can see are fine. Its the onces that are hidden and begin with a "." like ".gnome2" that need to be removed.
It all depends on how much you've installed. Consider this. Rename your old home folder. Then you things are running you can add the hidden folders as desired.

wjstarrsiii wrote:Hi, looking for a risk analysis for the following:

I have LMDE (installed at 9, brought to 10 via updates) installed on a 64-bit capable machine. /home is on its own partition.

First of all LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is a totally separate distro from LinuxMint-9 or LinuxMint-10

You can upgrade from Mint-9 to Mint-10 (Ubuntu-based) . . . but you cannot upgrade to LMDE. (Debian-based)

While Ubuntu is loosely based on Debian .... they are not compatible nor interchangeable.

shoudl be pretty save in this case - after all you use the same distro and everything that stores settings in home will be the same version afterwards.(maybe a dist-upgrade before you use all too much stuff) .
If you're unsure you could look through your home folder from the live disc before installing and delete all the hidden folders except the ones for programs whose settings you know you want to have stored.
(don't forget to check subdirs of ~/.gconf and ~/.config in that case)

well or you just delete everything starting with a "."

To clarify..

I currently am running LMDE 32 bit
I want to install LMDE 64 bit (the 64 bit was not yet released when I built this machine).
Would I expect that the format and content of configuration files for installed applications (things starting with ".") to be the same between 32 and 64? Is there a reason I would have to delete them? I don't really keep any data on my home directory, I have a NAS where I keep all of my documents, downloads, etc. About the only things in /home are these configuration settings. My main concern is losing saved passwords in firefox, changing ssh keys, etc.

well i used the 64 bit for a while after it was released and switched back to 32 bit, reusing the complete home partition with the same profile, and had no problem whatsoever.

I think your keys are safe.