how do you do a fresh install?

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oakhilltop
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how do you do a fresh install?

Post by oakhilltop »

Just wondering how people do a fresh install. I have backed up the home directories, and installed Mint7. But ..... now what do I do? Should I overwrite the new .gconf with my old one or my user's old .gconfs? That way everyone will get the settings they had before. But will I lose the nice new settings that came with Mint7? I'm talking about the themes etc.

How do others handle this?

Steve
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kei84

Re: how do you do a fresh install?

Post by kei84 »

I always make fresh install and never upgrade directly.

I have 3 partitions. Swap, / and /home

When installing a new version, choose manually create partitions and create theses 3 partition I mentioned.
This way it will keep all your settings like themes and so on.
Lantesh

Re: how do you do a fresh install?

Post by Lantesh »

kei84 has good advice. To add to it when you are installing don't format your /home from your last install. Assign the same partition as /home again, but leave the format check box unchecked. That way all your settings carry over from your last install. I have been using my current /home directory since Mint 4 or 5, and am now running Mint 7.
oakhilltop
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Posts: 91
Joined: Wed Apr 04, 2007 7:53 am

Re: how do you do a fresh install?

Post by oakhilltop »

I use to have a separate home partition, but gave up on it because I had to figure out how much to allocate to it. Nowadays with the huge hard drives, I guess it isn't an issue. But, backing up my home directory is pretty simple. So is putting it back.

Sounds like you use the .gconf that was there before the install then. In the past, I would sometimes have problems with wallpapers that didn't exist in the new install etc.
FedoraRefugee

Re: how do you do a fresh install?

Post by FedoraRefugee »

I used to worry about carrying over all my settings. That is until I figured out that it wasnt worth the bother! What's to carry over anyway? The wallpaper? The fact you are running X icons and Y theme? This is too hard to just reset on the fly? How many apps do you actually have "personalized" in any way?

I have seen too many bugs pop up between releases of even the same distro. Not only bugs, but simply upgrading to a new version of an app often causes many problems. I want to keep my OS completely separate from my data. The OS is expendable, it means nothing. I can have Mint reinstalled fresh and right back where I am now in under half an hour. Why spend days or even weeks troubleshooting an issue? Just reinstall. Always fresh, Minty fresh. If my OS goes belly up I have lost nothing, I just reinstall.

Forget a separate /home, instead create a /data (or a /movies, /music, /pr0n...whatever) and keep your stuff there. Keep /home at a small size and just use it as a build environment, download cache, and a place to keep your themes. If uou do want to back up any of the config files in /home it is a simple matter to just copy them to/data and drag them back in a new install. You can keep the whole .mozilla file for instance, but I have found it better to just use xmarks to store my bookmarks online (and be able to sync between all my computers) and just redo Firefox upon fresh install also. Even FF, what is really there? A theme, a few plugins, a few settings...

Just my opinion, the beauty of Linux is you can do what YOU want. If you want a separate /home that you can carry over then knock yourself out. I just dont see much worth in doing it. I want everything new and fresh upon install, just like the devs intended.
Lantesh

Re: how do you do a fresh install?

Post by Lantesh »

FedoraRefugee makes an excellent point about keeping your data separate. I do not keep my data in /home. I have other partitions for data. I do however use sym links in my home directory to point to my data. Doing this I am able to keep a rather small partition for /home.
kei84

Re: how do you do a fresh install?

Post by kei84 »

I use 3 partitions /,/home and swap but I always make a fresh install when I wanna upgrade my system.

As FedoraRefugee said, it`s really simple to install a theme or wallpaper again. I just use my /home separed cause it`s easier to keep it organized.
rlindsey0

Re: how do you do a fresh install?

Post by rlindsey0 »

I'm nowhere near as smart about Linux as FedoraRefugee, Lantesh, and many others, but here's what's worked for me: three partitions--swap, /, and /Data, the last of which I mount in /home (/home/{me}/Data). When I moved from Felicia to Gloria, I made a list of all the extra programs I'd installed (such as Miro, Stellarium, and a few others--programs that were not included in Felicia). Then I backed up everything that was in /home (except /Data, which was already separate), including all hidden files, to an outboard drive; I also copied my FF bookmarks over there. Then, when I installed Gloria, I did a fresh install. I told the installer to format / (including creating a new /home), but I made sure it did NOT format /Data but just mounted it again in /home as /home/{me}/Data. So all my data were untouched. I then reinstalled all the extra programs I'd listed that were not included in Gloria, then copied over any configuration files I wanted/needed from the backed-up previous /home. Finally, I reimported my FF bookmarks. So I had all my data and my bookmarks, any relevant configuration preferences were retained, and I had a brand-new shiny Gloria install. Believe me, if I can do this, you can. Good luck!
kei84

Re: how do you do a fresh install?

Post by kei84 »

Create a /data partitions is a great idea too.
It all depends on what kind of files or data you have in your system. Having these extra partitions is great for backing-up things when you wanna make a fresh install.
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