Hello.

This is a request for advice, based on experience if possible, regarding installation of Ubuntu with various directories on separate partitions:

Introduction to Problem: Please read this to get an idea of exactly what I need to know. I use the computer for business and my setup can get kind of elaborate. I cannot afford to be down. On Windows, I have two identical hard drives which are kept synched but only one of which is in the machine at a time - usually. Data is stored on a separate partition.

While I can rebuild the setup from scratch, I save time in the event of an emergency, by formatting the C drive and ghosting it from the remaining hard drive - or - in the event of a hard drive crash, by ghosting everything onto a new hard disk.

The only time I really need to do a lot of rebuilding is when there is a version change (98 -XP, etc.).

Since I prefer to use Linux - specifically Ubuntu - I have to find the very fastest and easiest and most reliable way to deal with version changes. Obviously, these are much more frequent than Windows version changes. This poses a problem for the business user as I can't be completely rebuilding the system every 6 months or so.

On my most recent installation of Ubuntu (7.04 Feisty), I put the home directory on its own partition, I have not yet tried to install a later version while making sure the home partition isn't overwritten, but sooner or later I'll have to. Also, I'm not sure a separate home partition is enough.

(I use Automatix after an install to put in a lot of things at once. I've been advised that a clean install of the OS is safer than attempting an upgrade after using all kinds of scripts, etc.) Anyone disagree?

The main problems I'll face are keeping confugurations for Thunderbird, Firefox, ftp server, Linux to Linux network (nfs), wine and/or VMWare

So, the questions (please comment on any or all of these as your experience allows):

1.Partitions: some people install Linux with separate partions for home, var, and usr.

a.That sounds good on the face of it, but it occurs to me that it may not always work - or may even break something, if there are version changes in software with which the old configuration files are incompatible. So, maybe Thunderbird 1.5 profiles, and the like, will only mess up Thunderbird 2, for example.

b.Are these partitions sufficient or do some of the programs mentioned throw things in other directories.

Any experience on this??

2. Thunderbird: my Thunderbird setup, not counting extensions and themes, is kind of complex. I have lots of e-mail accounts, lots of folders and lots of message rules. It takes quite a while to redo this. Does anyone know what files or folders I would need to back up ALL of these configurations? (There is an extension for exporting all this and importing to a new installation of Thunderbird, but I found it worked one time and messed up everything the next time I tried it.)

3. Wine: will it work to make a backup of, say, .wine, then install wine on the new version and replace the .wine directory with the one I've saved? Would I need to reinstall programs under wine or would replacing the whole folder keep them there as they were?

4. Networking and ftp server: I hope the devs make this just work some day as they have for Windows networks. Feisty just connects with no problem to Windows machines with a shared folder. Linux to Linux is still a major pain. For now, is there anyway to carry all this forward to a new installation? I don't even know where all the files are located or what to back up.

5. Home Partition: I assume that some critical directories will be overwritten by the automatic installation of software - EVEN if I tell the install program not to overwrite. For example, .thunderird would probably be replaced during a new installation. Presumably, I would need to rename it and then switch back after installing. Is this correct?

6. Any other sage advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!
__________________

Ubuntu offers a "LTS" version of both it's server and desktop distro's. The LTS stands for Long Term Support, because they know that no one running a business wants to upgrade every 6 months. They guaranty that they will be fixing security holes and putting out bug fixes for the LTS versions for 3 years for the desktop distro, and 5 years for the server. That alone should solve quite a few of your issues. Here is a download link, if you need it.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

I would go with separate partitions for / , /home and /var. The only reason for a separate partition for /var is that you don't want you root dir to fill with error logging messeges and crash, just in case something goes wrong. /home as it's own partition is so you can upgrade without worrying about config issues. For instance, your .thunderbird in your home dir won't be affected when you upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu. Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

Oh, a few other random thoughts, I've had some trouble with vmware, think about giving virtualbox a try, it's been golden for me, and it's opensource, where vmware is not only more hassle, with fewer features, it's closed source. There are many linux programs that can "ghost" a drive for you. partimage is one. I use the live cd knoppix to make an image of my install onto a usb hard drive, then I can restore if I need to. You might want to think about setting up raid for your linux box, with the 2 hard drives being of different manufacture, so it'll be a little less likely that they will both fail at the same time, or nearly the same time.

Oh, a few partimage links for you...

http://pittman.ws/articles/howto/partimage.html
http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page
http://swik.net/partimage

Good luck....

The thunderbird and firefox config is stored under your /home in a hidden folder there.
I run a dual boot just in case I need windows for something and have /home of a seperate partition and use it in either OS. I don't reinstall the OS every time there is an update, I might update components like KDE or something but the main upgrades I do once every year or two. I'll buy a new bigger drive then and install clean, create my user and /home then put the previous drive in an external enclosure and copy my data over.

Thanks for the replies.

Right about LTS. It's just that Dapper is the only one so far and I'm really glad I went to Feisty ... much improved! So, I want to take advantage of future improvements ... but definitely not every new version.

The main question is something like Thunderbird folders, accounts and message rules. Are those in the home directory or in one of the other places Thunderbird scatters things all over?

I'll look into virtualbox. I try not to go to Windows ever, but there are a couple of critical programs I just can't replace on Linux. Therefore, I considering installing a lite XP under VMWare or something and use the actual programs. Wine won't run them. I have a couple of programs under wine and they work almost ... sort of. But I know it can't run an MS ACCESS data base reliably, for one example.

enine: I did essentially as you say when I did my current installation ... copied over my home folder. But I still had to redo everything in Thunderbird. Maybe I'm wrong. It could be I didn't copy over everything ... just some directories. Would copying all of home solve the problem?

Actually what I was thinking about for next time was installing from the alternate install disk and telling it not to overwrite /home. That's supposed to be possible but I've never tried it yet. Of course, if it didn't listen to me I'd better be backed up.

Those configs are usually stored in a hidden folder. In linux the hidden folders in your /home start with a . and are usually named .thunderbird or .kde or whatever. If you failed to copy them over many of your config changes would be lost. I keep a seperate /home just for ease in upgrading. I don't upgrade with every release any more. I just upgrade once a year. Every other version, by the Ubuntu calender. I use windows2000 with virtualbox for those 1 or 2 apps I can't get running with wine. Needs less ram than XP.

Oh, there might be some thunderbird configs in /etc, but I think most of the ones you'd be worried about will be in your home folder....

Good luck...

David