What is the best way to change distributions?
 

I've been using Fedora since Core 2 came out and I have to say that I'm less than happy with it. I've trudged through the common Fedora gripes such as mp3 support etc but overall, my setup still feels half-baked.

Recently, I tried the Suse 9.1 Live CD and was pleasantly surprised. The layout is more cohesive and, despite running off of a CD, my computer was noticeably more responsive.

What is the best way to change distributions? Can installers overlay on existing setups? Is there a way to preserve my current home folder, KDE settings, installed programs etc? I can back up my current setup to another hard drive and wipe this one but I'd like to preserve as much as possible.

I've seen many Windows to Linux migration articles but nothing on distribution switching. Hopefully this will help other new users seeking a better fit. Thank you in advance.

- Ivan

My favorite method is to install to a second HDD, then mount the original drive(s) so my old files are available until I decide I no longer need them.

The thing for someone to do when they first install Liinux is to create a seperate partition for /home. Then if you have to reinstall or want to switch distros this partition can remain intact. There may be a few apps that the configs might conflict. So directories such as .kde and .gnome* will probably have to be removed.

You wouldn't want to keep apps. Apps in different version of different distros rely on different library and config files. So you would want to replace with the ones from the new distro.

The first thing to do is back up the /home directories and configs from the current distribution.

i usually tar up my home directory and back iy up.
i dont like using a home partiton cos i only have a 6gig disk... and i almost always run into a problem like having loads of free space on one parttion, and none on the other.

tar /home/user -c | bzip2 -c > /home/user.tar.bz2

yea. tar up /home /root/ and /etc/, or better yet, the whole distribution on a dvd-r. install the new one, and. put your home and root back over the new distro, and most things will work the way they did. you'll spend a few days making changes to get stuff working, but after a while, you'll get stuff the way you want.

if you follow whansard's advice, make sure you pass 'tar' the the correct parameters for conserving file permissions and ownerships an both compression, and extraction. otherwise certain programs like XFree86 or Xorg will not function.

and non root users will not be able to log in.

i guess that would be
tar clfvpz - /home > /home.tgz
and extract with

tar zxvpf home.tgz --same-owner

that could be fixed with chown by root, if you messed it up.

i backup up in suck a way once... was a horrible mess !!!

when i extracted the backup ontl a disk, all permissions were reset to default
Owner = Root
Not SUID
permissions = 755.

i had to hunt down all the binary's that need to be SUID root and change them
i had to set ownership of home directories.
i hade to change access rights to /var/tmp and /tmp
also, many many files in /dev/ hav strance access rights..

/dev/null was not wriatable to all users which caused crashes.
/det/pty's didnt allow non root access
tty's were even worse !

it took hours to get the system running smoothly again.

and reading strace logs gave me a mad headache.. lol.

same here. it was a long time until i learned the "p" and "--same-owner"