computer going downhill, which files should i backup?

rabbit2345 · 06-14-2008, 08:40 PM

hi,

my computer is getting kinda unstable, and my usual solution is to reinstall linux, but this time i don't wan to spend an entire week reconfiguring the whole thing. my home files are on a seperate partition, so i don't have to worry about those. i think i could just copy the entire /etc directory, but is there anything that i should take with me? and is there anything else i should take besides the /etc dir?

thanks,
rabbit2345

billymayday · 06-14-2008, 09:11 PM

You'll need to tell us what you are running to answer that

pinniped · 06-15-2008, 12:06 AM

You may want to create a list of installed software if your distro has such options in its package management tools. I'm not familiar with the SuSe tools, but on a Debian system for example, I would just do:

dpkg --get-selections > my_installed_file_list

Then to restore, I install a 'base' system only, then:

dpkg --set-selections < my_installed_file_list
apt-get dselect-upgrade

If your distro has such tools, it makes life easier.

rabbit2345 · 06-16-2008, 07:27 AM

thanks pinniped for that, there is a feature in suse that will do the same.

billymayday: i run opensuse 10.3, if that helps any

billymayday · 06-16-2008, 07:48 AM

My question was more directed at what apps you run, such as openldap, mysql, etc

rabbit2345 · 06-17-2008, 07:23 AM

my system does not run anything special like mysql, just standard kde apps i was also thinking that since the release of opensuse 11 was so close, i could install opensuse 11 instead of 10.3, would there be any conflicts if i did save the /etc directory and maybe the ~/.kde?

thanks,
rabbit2345

billymayday · 06-17-2008, 04:17 PM

In that case, then probable /home, and it wouldn't hurt to have a copy of /etc. I also keep /var/spool/cron for any use/root cronjobs