[olug] Upgrading to FC4 from FC3

[Jon H. Larsen]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2005, A-Wal wrote:

> Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 23:22:13 -0500
> From: A-Wal <A-Wal at cox.net>
> Reply-To: Omaha Linux User Group <olug at olug.org>
> To: Omaha Linux User Group <olug at olug.org>
> Subject: [olug] Upgrading to FC4 from FC3
> 
> Hello,
> 
>    This is a n00b question, I know, but I really don't know the answer.  If I
> download the FC4 ISOs and select upgrade, will it save my email settings in
> Thunderbird after the install?  I'm actually going to wipe my Linux partitions
> and reinstall from scratch, but it's just a FYI for future upgrades.  I
> currently have several partitions, with several Linux flavors, and will be
> consolidating them all into a single FC4 install.  Sure, I can probably remap
> the other partitions into my FC3 system under new directories, but I consider
> that a sloppy hack when I can just do it right in a day anyway.  The other
> question is sorta related.  What Thunderbird data files do I need to copy over
> to my new system to restore all my settings and filters?  That's really the
> only data I would like backed up and restored on the new system.

If your /home directory is a separate partition (eg. /dev/hda2), 
simply don't format it when you do the install.

If you have one partition of say, /dev/hda1 = / and no separate /home, 
then you will need to either backup your /home partition or just your 
/home/myid or simply do the Upgrade option.

Technically, selecting Upgrade from the FC4 installation program will not 
erase your existing data.  You want a full install to do that.  Keeping in 
mind it works great if your /home is a separate partition.

What I always do before a new install or upgrade of Fedora on my box is 
make printouts of key files.

/etc/fstab
/etc/grub.conf
/etc/X11/xorg.conf

A partition layout:

[~]$ sudo /sbin/fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 27.3 GB, 27373731840 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3328 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1          10       80293+  83  Linux
/dev/hda2              11        1315    10482412+  83  Linux
/dev/hda3            1316        1413      787185   82  Linux swap
/dev/hda4            1414        3328    15382237+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5            1414        3328    15382206   83  Linux

including the df -h (remember, fstab has LABEL=/home):

[~]$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda2             9.9G  5.1G  4.3G  55% /
/dev/hda1              76M  8.5M   64M  12% /boot
none                  252M     0  252M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda5              15G   13G  910M  94% /home


Then I highlight the partitions I need to keep, and start the upgrade.


After the install, I usually move my home dir ('/home/myid') to a saved 
version ('/home/SAVED_myid'), login, them move over program settings for 
each program, firefox, thunderbird, grip, etc I use.

When I'm done, I generally get rid of the old SAVED_myid version.  Think 
of it as a 'cleaning house' from all the stuff I tried but don't use 
anymore.  This allows me to start fresh with Gnome on a new version, and 
only bring over stuff I need.  It is a lot of work, but I'm not left 
guessing what might be lying around that I don't want to troubleshoot.

At work, I simply do an upgrade and leave my homedir intact.
  
I tend to experiment with many different apps at home, and don't 
necessarily need the 'cruft' lying around.

Either way works great in my experience.


I do have all the FC4 ISO cd and dvd images available.

Jon L.

-- 
Jon H. Larsen  - relayer -at- levania -dot- org
Omaha Linux Users Group - http://www.olug.org/
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