How to upgrade my Linux box?
 

Hello,

I have been a user of Linux for a while, but never had to upgrade from a version of the OS to a newer one.

I want to preserve the user data, and for sure I have them in a separate partition.

Is the upgrade process depending on the distribution (Mandriva in this case) or is there some point I have to take into account no matter what the distribution is?

Should I start from a downloaded ISO image of the new version of the OS or can I do the upgrading on-line?

Can someone post some golden rules about Linux upgrading?

Thank you for your help.

Emeburns

linux upgradation
 

what version of linux u r upgrading.if upgrading u can upgrade from the version which was released before the current upgrading version.otherwise if u r upgrading any version u cannot upgrade.

my solution
 

What I do, and its probably not the best way, is to have 2 partitions for Linux, one is for 'current' and one for 'future'. I have a home partition for user data and when I change LInuxes I can use the user settings saved in /home for the other install.

In order to update, or change distributions I would just install a new distribution on its own partition, so download a CD of Ubuntu, fedora, suse, arch or whatever, install it to your spare partition and tell it where the /home partition is, Ubuntu imports user settings automatically. Then you can start using it! This is without interrupting your existing install, so if you have problems you can still search the forums for solutions!

I hope this is of some help for you, and best of luck finding a distro which suits you!