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changing distros -hard or easy?
ok i have suse 10 linux at the moment
for infomatio i have the following running vnc mysql apache webserver (and several websites that are essential to my local area network) counter strike source dedicated server battlefield 1942 dedicated server several #!/bin/sh scripts thanks to the extremly helpful people on this site its a 1.6 ghz processor 512 megs of ram on board video onboard lan two hard drives i think 20gig one and 300 gig one windows installed on the 20gig one (though i never use windows anymore) linux suse 10 installed on the 300gig one i`m thinking of changing to ubuntu i`m having the odd problem with suse and i`d like to try ubuntu (http://www.zegeniestudios.net recommanded it too) but i need to know a couple of things; 1) will it just install over the top of suse replacing suse for me and saving me countless hassles? 2) will the above run on ubuntu (in particular the scripts?) 3) anything i need to know before attempting this? thanks in advance |
Switching distros is easy. As you suggest, if you keep the same partitioning scheme, and assuming that /home is a separate partition, you can even switch distros without losing any data (by installing the new distro "around" the existing /home partition)
The basic idea is to just install the new distro using the same partitions as were used on the previous distro. At a very simple level, if sda1 was root, sda2 was /home, and sda3 was swap, then moving from one distro to another would basically come down to reusing the same partitions for the same purposes, but to *not* reformat /home, in order to retain your existing personal data. Good luck with it. I've experimented with many distros using this approach, and it works very smoothly. Good luck with it and have fun |
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I usually change distros a lot. It's very easy. if you have a separate /home part. Then just mount in the install program.
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my web files are stored at
/srv/www/htdocs/ my home is /home/mrgreaper/ my root is /root/ i assume its all on the same partition? if i go to filesystem there all there as folders not hd`s but maybe i misunderstand? |
post your /etc/fstab will show which partitions are mounted to which mount points, the fact that you aren't sure does suggest that it's ll 1 partition.
You could backup the necesary stuff using tar. The untar into the right directories once ubuntu is installed, personally i'd make a fresh start, a fair amount of work but a good learning/refresher opportunity, and distros do have some subtle differences |
a fresh install is proberly the way i`ll go (im in the process of networking stuff across to my main pc
and downloadong ubuntu desktop edition i downloaded the dvd edition last night and realised this mourning i`ve got no dvd drive in my server pc lol the one thing i need is to backup my sql databases so i can easily re import them into mysql on ubuntu (im assuming ubuntu comes with mysql ...and apache for that matter) |
you can make a /home partition and copy your current /home now even if you didn't have one previously.
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yeah i thought about that but then i`d have to merge them back again or have more partitions then i want. i`m backing up my stuff across the network but its taking a while i estimate 4 hours or so were talking 100 gigs plus of data
the one thing thats looking like its going to be a show stopper is these sql databases now when i originly created the data bases i had sql files all i had to do was make the database and then import the sql file into them and that created the tables but now i have data in those databasses that i really dont want to lose, i thought there would just be a command that would create a sql file for each database that i can later import into mysql and all would be right with the world but thats looking unlikly its taken an hour but i found a php page set called phpmyadmin seems to be backing up my databases to a sql file for me looks like i can import them with it as well :) thankgod also it looks a lot easier to manage databases through this then through command line |
"its taken an hour but i found a php page set called phpmyadmin seems to be backing up my databases to a sql file for me looks like i can import them with it as well thankgod "
i was halfway through typing about that before i read your post fully :P |
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well it sure wasnt easy to install
the first bit that asls you what language you want ... well i kept clicking english nothing hapened i hit return nothing grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr finaly i clicked right mouse and choose move turns out th install window is bigger then the screen!!!!! i looked at resulotion and its 640x 480 and cant seem to be changed now i managed to guess my way through the first few panels and its now creating a ext3 partition but seems silly to make the install gui bigger then the screen i hope i aint done ought wrong in install i`m assuming it will leave the primary windows partition alone by default just wish i could of read all the options WELL it killed my windows partition i cannot vnc into it i had no choice of applications to install during the install stage so that means i have to find apache and python and mysql etc etc etc etc and all this from a linux that claims to be user friendly! oh and i cant change my resulotion its stuck at 640 x 480 all in all its been a wonderful waste of time i`m gonna explore it a bit but im thinking i may just go back to suse 10 my advice (personal only) avoid ubuntu |
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The thing that causes/caused me the most grief, was that when various installers detect my nvidia graphics card, they seem to insist on using the generic "nv" driver, I then have to change the resolution to 800x600 and set it to, like 60 Hz so I can read the screen enough to either install the proprietary nvidia driver, or if I haven't got that far, to change the driver to "vesa" which seems to suit my system better. As for the install, I did Ubuntu first, but then changed it to Kubuntu (I screwed up with the Ubuntu and couldn't work out what I'd need to do). Both installed easily enough. My only annoyance is that it uses bloody sudo, which bugs the hell out of me. I can't see how sudo is any safer to use that just using a root account for everything. I've just been looking to see how to turn it off/remove it so that my system works in a "normal" way. Plus, the only real snag I've had, was that the other day, there was some updates, which I installed, I then noticed that an upgraded kernel had installed, so I knew that I'd have to re-install the nvidia driver (something that I've been familar with in the past). It drove me up the wall, because following their instructions, one of the packages that should have been available (called linux-restricted-modules-2.6.15-23-386) wasn't available on the main repositories for a couple of days - and I hunted high and low for it. Eventually, I found that I could install a more optimised kernel for i686, and that did have the package available. I think that next time I get p****d off with a distro, I'll go back to gentoo. It might be a bit of a swine to install, but the management of the system/packages, truely is very easy. Good luck with your migration. regards John |
i`m wishing i never attempted it
its a night mere 8hours of my life gone and a lot of data not very important data but still humpf |
Hard. You'll have to read the manuals and make sure you setup your partitions right. Then learn the file structuring.
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