switching from Ubuntu 32 to Kubuntu 64 bit

pickarooney · 12-09-2006, 02:52 AM

I've been running Ubuntu Dapper/Edgy 32 bit version on my 64 bit system for a while and want to try out Kubuntu (64 bit). I have the DVD version of Kubuntu burned, though I can't remember if it was a normal or alternative version, or if there is a difference with the DVD ISOs.

Anyhow, I tried to boot from the DVD and install this morning, but panicked a little at the partitioning stage. I have three hard drives installed - hda, hdb and sda. Sda is the main drive and contains the OS and my home. I want to format just the system part of the disk and leave /home intact. At the installation stage, the installer/partitioner doesn't seem to want to give me the option. It looks as though it only recognises sda as one disk and will format all or nothing.
Considering the output from the mount command below, do I in fact have no partitioning on the disk sda and am I doomed to losing all information on /home if I perform a fresh install of Kubuntu now? I can't figure out how this happened as on my previous installation of Ubuntu, on the disk hda, I had separate partitions for / and /home (hda6 and hda7)

To sum up
1) how do I know if I have the right installation media?
2) what options (if any) can I use to avoid losing all data on /home and still wipe the system files?

Code:

/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-386/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/hda6 on /media/oldhome type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/hda7 on /media/oldsystem type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/hdb1 on /media/supersize type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/hdb5 on /media/games type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)

bigrigdriver · 12-09-2006, 09:03 AM

To preserve /home, if you have room on another disk, make a directory to hold the contents of /home. Mount the other partition, mkdir /ubuntuhome, then cp -R /home /media/oldhome/ubuntuhome (or wherever you choose to put it).

Then insall Kubuntu. You may have the option, before you commit to installing, to edit a file to change the proposed installation scheme (Kanotix will try to overwrite another Debian installation, but a dialogue box tells one which file to edit to change the proposed installation scheme. Kubuntu may do the same.) You should still have the option to abort if that is not the case.

After installation, delete the contents of /home, and copy back from ubuntuhoome.

As far as the number of partitions on /dev/sda, what does 'fdisk -l /dev/sda' tell you about the partitions on sda?

pickarooney · 12-09-2006, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigrigdriver

To preserve /home, if you have room on another disk, make a directory to hold the contents of /home. Mount the other partition, mkdir /ubuntuhome, then cp -R /home /media/oldhome/ubuntuhome (or wherever you choose to put it).

Then insall Kubuntu. You may have the option, before you commit to installing, to edit a file to change the proposed installation scheme (Kanotix will try to overwrite another Debian installation, but a dialogue box tells one which file to edit to change the proposed installation scheme. Kubuntu may do the same.) You should still have the option to abort if that is not the case.

After installation, delete the contents of /home, and copy back from ubuntuhoome.

As far as the number of partitions on /dev/sda, what does 'fdisk -l /dev/sda' tell you about the partitions on sda?

Cheers BRD.

fdisk tells me the following. I'm not sure how many blocks correspond to <>190 GB, but I'm guessing they're all in the sda1 partition.

So, I made a backup of my home directory on disk two and hopefully everything is in there (had some permissions issues while copying), so I've not much left to lose when reinstalling.
Is there a simple command to compare two paths and check for missing files or should I write a script to make sure everything was copied across?

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       23991   192707676   83  Linux
/dev/sda2           23992       24321     2650725    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           23992       24321     2650693+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

bigrigdriver · 12-09-2006, 02:16 PM

First, the copy command to copy /home to another location. cp -R (recursive copy to capture all subfolders and their files). If there were permissions issues, su to root first, then do the copy.

Second, the reason you keep getting the result that there is only sda1 on the drive, is because that is exactly the case; it's the only usable Linux partition (swap is swap, not Linux). The extended partition is not usable; think of it as a container. Right not the container is empty. When you create an extended partition, it is then necessary to create logical partition(s) inside the extended partition.

So, let's say you create two partitions inside sda2, your partitions would then look like this: sda1 Linux, sda2 Extended, sda5 Linux, sda6 Linux, and sda7 Swap. Partitions you can install Linux OS into would be: sda1, sda5, and sda6.

Bottom line: you started the partitioning when you made sda1 and sda2; you just didn't finish it. Now make one or more partition inside the extended, and be on your way.

For comparing the /home and /copiedhome, look into using the diff command.