so i decided to upgrade this here computer form slackware 9.1 to 10
but i didn't wanna scew it up so i wanted to copy everything over to a new partition first
mounted the new partition
cp -aR /* /new/
some difficulties in /dev/ and /var but whatever
lilo it
and rebooted to it
everything seems to work except xfce, or maybe its gnome
maybe its something in /var
now on to the upgrading...
followed the UPGRADE.txt from the slackware.iso
everything seems fine except now there's two cd's
adjusted for that
lilo'ed it
and copyed all the new (*.new) configuration files like PV(the man) said
still no xfce although the gtk apps i've tried seem to work fine
fonts are ugly (un aliased)
had to remake the users and make a new root password
no real question here just generalized ones
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is that password/user thing ok? i mean was it supposed to do that?
i guess a lot of the problems now are from having a new user on the old users home directory
i chowned the home directory but what about /var's permissions? and maybe /tmp's too
how should i have copied the installation over so as not to hang on fifo's and screw up var?
anything anybody want to add on this whole upgrading thing? pointers, do's,dont's,whatnot?
before i do the real upgrade ...

Whenever I need to do a complete backup/copy of an installation, as you're doing here, I use a PartitionMagic floppy to copy the entire partition into a different hard drive. That way, if the upgrade fails, I can copy the partition back to restore the system exactly as it was just before the major upgrade.

Note that, because of the way that linux assigns partition numbers, the best way to restore a partition in this scenario is:
1. Delete the original, now messed up partition.
2. Copy the partition from the the secondary disk into the same location as the original partition on the primary disk.

This ensures that the restored partition has the same number and other attributes of the original partition. And your existing lilo config should work, with no changes.

As long as you followed the instructions in UPGRADE.TXT exactly, it should have worked fine.

Meaning:
1. Upgrade glibc libraries first.
2. Upgrade pkgtools second.
3. Upgrade/Install New sed-* packages
4. Upgrade everything else

You also might want to check within the /etc/ directory (and its subdirectories) for ".new" files, which are the new versions of config and startup files. You'll want to synch up each of your existing config and startup files with their ".new" counterparts. Basically, migrate your customizations and settings into the newer versions.
I usually use vimdiff to compare the two files and then manually change the appropriate settings in the new files.