Distro switch require partition format?

fatman · 01-13-2005, 11:45 AM

I am considering switching from Debian to Ubuntu for my HTPC box (AMD64).
(NVIDIA drivers aren't playing nice with my 32-bit Debian System - 64 bit kernel combo)

When I installed Debian, I made separate partitions for /boot, / , /home, and /video.
I already have data stored in my /home partition, can I just install Ubuntu without wiping clean that partition?

bbk · 01-14-2005, 03:38 AM

sure you can.

You need to specify at install time the boot, swap and root partitions and you can define other - already existing - partitions to mount into another directory. You should clean (choose format in the installer) only /boot and the root (/) partitions.

bigrigdriver · 01-14-2005, 04:07 AM

However, you do need to be careful. If you have the partition setup for ext3, and you switch to reiserFS (or some other filesystem format), you will loose it. This applies no matter what the format of the original partition, and not matter what the format of the subsequent partition, unless they are the same filesystem format. Make a backup first.