I will explain below, if anyone has an interest in this or has any ideas on how to do this I would greatly appreciate your input:

-- I want to take 1 distribution that I have set up with software installed (use Debian, for example) and I want to copy all of the files that pertain to the software installed on it (such as /usr, /lib) and copy these to another machine (running Fedora Core 1), the reason for this is that I am building a cluster and so far Fedora Core 1 seems to be one of the only distros that supports the clustering software I am trying to use.

(I already know how to to copy the files and remount them appropriately.. I am in the process of doing this)..

However, I am not sure if this will work properly, is there anything else I Would need to edit to be able to run the software from the Debian machine on Fedora Core 1? Is there any chance at all that this will work? Thanks

Rube Goldberg would be fascinated with your project.

First, combining files from two different distros would be a huge nightmare.

Second, I would seriously question any SW that will "only run on FC1". FC6 is about to be released---anything worth using is going to be usable on current distros.

First, get SW that works with one of the current distros. Install the two together, get it working, and then decide how much time you want to spend in the Rube Goldberg mode.

Thanks for the reply, the software is OpenMosix, a clustering software. I am beginning to think that the best option may be to find a different type of clustering software since I don't want to waste a lot of time trying to get it to work.. I wonder, though if I used Fedora Core 5 files and put them into the Fedora Core 1 if that would work. I don't know enough about the distro to know how its changed over the years but I am guessing there would still be some issues in doing this.

For all but copying the simplest of simple applications, what you're proposing would be like trying to stuff 25 poisonous snakes into an empty cereal box without getting bitten. Apps would have been compiled against differing versions of libraries, header files, etc. Yeuch!

I think all of LQ.org would bow at your feet were you able to accomplish such a task.

The thing that peaks my curiousity is 'Why?' What's so special about FC1 that keeps you tied to it instead of going with FC5 (or FC6 when it comes out)? I understand that the clustering software you are currently looking into works on FC1, but wouldn't it work just as well, if not better, on FC5? What's Debian got that FC* doesn't? I'm currently working with Debian and haven't yet attempted to work with FC* so I'm not "up" on the differences between them.

I'm sorry if these seem like obvious questions, but I'm a follower of the concept "It's not a question of whether or not something can be done; it's a question of whether or not something SHOULD be done." If one distro can solve your issues and has clustering software pre-packaged, I would think that would be an ideal solution, rather than a Franken-tux type distro. Just my 2 cents on this.

You're making some classic understatements....."some issues"?? Try nightmare.
Again---why would you want to do this?

Technically I see this is a bad idea and haertig has put it rather nicely.

It is common knowledge that a distro can easily hangs or its kernel panics if part of but not all the components are compiled/re-installed. That is why we have a "clean" re-install against a partial install.

To forciby marrying up two sets of systems files together discriminately must be suicidal in Linux term. Hence haertig's way of putting 25 poisonous snakes into a box and getting bitten is pretty real to me.

Sorry, I thought I had said this but realized I had not, to clarify: the latest version of OpenMosix is built for the 2.4.26 Linux kernel, therefore it is not possible to use the software on a distro running a Linux kernel newer than 2.4.26 and Fedora Core 1 uses this kernel, and OpenMosix installs easily into FC1. (there is a newer 2.6 kernel testing version of OpenMosix but it does not work properly, it is currently unstable).

So that is the reason I need to do this (now that you all think I'm crazy .. well anyways, if anyone knows of some better, more recent clustering software that has process migration (I'm not looking for a beowulf style cluster as I want to run normal software) I would appreciate the input. Thanks

Thanks for your input.. do you know which distros have clustering software pre-packaged? I have been looking into this off and on over the last few months and have had little success finding information on this, I would prefer to use a Debian based system, either Debian or preferrably Ubuntu as it is usually easier to get the latest software versions to work (less time consuming) in Ubuntu than Debian Sarge. I'm not a Linux newbie but by no means am I an expert, I have searched and searched for more information on clustering but at least for Ubuntu it seems that the clustering components are still unfinished in the Dapper Drake version, I'm not aware of pre-packaged software in Debian and as far as the other distros go I don't know much about them as I prefer Debian (or something like Slackware, Gentoo as I actually don't like Fedora much or others like it, it was just sort of a latch ditch effort to hopefully get this to work)