Reinstall - what is preserved and what is lost?

[zuiko]

If I do a fresh install of 17.1 over 17 on my existing root partition, will the configs (/etc/network/interfaces for example) on the root partition be preserved or will any changes that were made to any of those config files have to be done again? What about software that was installed? If I have some mdadm disk arrays set up will the install be able to discover those or it is not going to know what to do with the disks? Any information or tips would be appreciated!

[deleted]

If / and /home are on the same partition, it will format it all.
Additionally, if say /etc and / are on the same partition, then it will format it all.

I generally create swap, /, and /home partitions. The then installer will only wipe swap and / and preserve /home.
During a re-install, you choose "manual" and point the installer to the partitions to use.

[zuiko]

I have a separate partition for /home. So everything on / is lost during reinstall whether I drop and recreate the / partition or not? So I will lose any config changes in /etc. What about applications installed with apt-get?

[WinterTroubles]

You probably know what I'm about to say and want a fresh install for 17.1.. but, just in case.. going from 17 to 17.1 you don't have to do a fresh install if you don't want to, as there is the inbuilt option to upgrade through the update manager (instructions in the relevant link in my signature).

Regards
WT

[deleted]

I have a separate partition for /home. So everything on / is lost during reinstall whether I drop and recreate the / partition or not? So I will lose any config changes in /etc. What about applications installed with apt-get?

They are gone... You are doing a re-install.
For any settings (in /etc) I need to keep, I generally put them in dropbox or some other backup.
AptOnCD in the repos might also be something you might use.
-H

[Pierre]

typically you would format / root,, & no-format /home.
so - you would lose everything in / root,, and only a little in /home.
- the installer does remove a few things in the re-used /home ..

[deleted]

FWIW, I rename /home/hinto to /home/hinto.bak and let the installer do what it does best.
After the first boot, I copy/move only items that I need from /home/hinto.bak to /home/hinto (like .mozilla, .thunderbird, .purple, .jedit)
-Hinto