Okay, I almost have my computer fine tuned to the point of heavenly bliss - XF86Config is is working great, WM working, fonts good, aterm tweaked and styling, bash yep, etc.

I'm posting this poll because I want to know what the practice is for everyone in case your computer calls it quits and you're back to square one.

As for me, I'm backing up all my configs so I don't have to figure all this out again.

(.Xdefaults, .vimrc, .bashrc, XF86Config, .xiinitrc-fluxbox, etc.)

both options 1 and 2!!
Slackware has yet to Crap out on me........but
if a hard disk dies, I will be ready to configure everything the way it was.

Hey hallamigo,

What about option E) I reconfigure everything from scratch when something goes wrong and/or I upgrade!

Everytime I update Mandrake or SuSE or whetever flavour of Linux catches my eye I kill everything in / (reformat) and leave /home as is. I usually start a new user account and copy all my data over -- with exception of my config files.

I find there's too much hassle using old configs after upgrading/switching distros (since there can be problem throwing old configs into a new distro) and I prefer to start from scratch every time. This also lets me get a feel for the default configuration of the distro -- if it's a bad setup it usually starts making me think about switching distro.

Then again, I use KDE -- so setting my desktop of just the way I leak is a breeze in the control center.

Tim

It's more than just a little bit silly to NOT keep a backup of some kind on hand. My backup philosohpy is this: Full system backup doesn't need to include anything I can reinstall from cd or [a backup of files I've downloaded from the 'net]. For me, a full backup is a backup of /etc/ and /home, plus a few other files. As I said, anything I can reinstall from CD or d/l'd file, I only need to backup my config, and restore the config AFTER I reinstall. "A few other files" would include data files, MySQL database, etc., that sometimes aren't found in /etc or /home.

Interesting, so you don't do backups, keep notes, or try to remember any of the configs. I guess you could say that there is an advantage to starting fresh - would you fall under the LQ and Google category (when research of your new/upgraded distro is needed)? Or maybe the memory category (because you've redone it so many times before)?

Correction: I said I don't backup configs. That doesn't mean I don't backup period.

Either way, about the only thing on my HDD that I treasure enough to backup are my documents; everything else -- emails, configs, accumulated junk in my home drive, etc. -- can dissapear tomorrow for all I care. I've lived through numerous HDD crashes and have realised that it aint the end of the world if I have to play up to the last level of Jedi Knight II again. It's only those 100,000 word document I spend so long grooming (years, in fact) that I'd cry about...

Point taken: I guess I'll vote option number 3, and a bit of 2 & 4

Any problem I come across with Linux and spend ages fixing (sometimes weeks) I document for future reference. That way I don't let myself get stumped by the same problem twice. Google and LG are my saviours, otherwise. Never found a problem that either perserverance, google, or LG couldn't fix.

There's a *lot* of merit, IMO, of starting anew with each upgrade (bearing in mind I usually sit on one distro for 6months+). For starters, truncating your config files and dragging them from system to system gets sloppy before long. I've set up my system so many times I've got pretty good at it. The big payoff is that my system is very clean in that respect, because in most cases I've found the most direct route to config and setup my system.

Tim