Hi all,
I would think that updating from one version to the next will keep everything the same, like all the partitions, dual boot stuff, data on the native home partition, things like that.

What about reinstalling? I haven't installed SuSe time and time again, I cant remember exactly. You can keep it from formatting all the partitions right? And I would think it will allow me to keep or reset the dual boot again, right?

Maybe, updating is the way to go, Im not very informed on the Suse update

??? you might - there is a slim chance skipping 11.3 might work ?
it might or might not

PLAN ON a full clean reinstall

and try the update -- who knows ?

but for the time involved I would just do a clean install , it would be faster and easier .

suse 11.4 is using ext4 partition format , i do believe and 11.2 ext3

Hello,

First, the filesystem type is not an issue. While the default on 11.4 is ext4, it is ok on ext2 or 3 as well.

What do you mean when you say "reinstalling"? You cannot just overwrite your installation and hope it will stay alive.

You have two options after you started the installer (and agreed the license):
-upgrade
-clean install

Is upgrade feasible from 11.2? I don't know, but the installer knows for sure. When you select the upgrade option, it will scan your system for upgradeable installations.

This thread is not too much encouraging for your plans. It would discourage me from the upgrade path.

In any case, expect trouble. You never know if is hard to know if issues are due to the distribution or the upgrade process.

Using the bootable installer, before you confirm to launch the upgrade process, it will allow you to review what will be done or changed on your system, so you might want to have a peek. It boils down mostly to getting new packages. It should preserve your boot configuration intact, apart from perhaps installing a new grub version to allow support of ext4, if it was not the case in 11.2.

The upgrade process should not format anything, otherwise it would be no different from clean install. Of course, it is possible to do a clean install without formatting the partition (i.e. because it has already been formatted). You got to customize the partitioning during install to do so. But with upgrade, this issue is irrelevant.

It is also possible to upgrade your openSUSE from your actual system, so that you don't need to even download the DVD iso. However, it does not seem to support older than 11.3 to do this. I wonder if you could:
upgrade 11.2 > 11.3
then
upgrade 11.3 > 11.4

Interesting to try, but not interesting to use such an installation.

For more:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:System_upgrade

By reinstall I mean a clean install

If your setup is something like:
-one partition for "/"
-one partition for "/home"

Setup should invite you, for clean install, to format the "/" partition and you don't have to format your "/home", just to mount that partition as "/home". Not formatting "/" would give you a happy mess! Just check carefully, when reviewing and confirming the install, what the partitioner will do.

The partitioner got some auto-detect and, but often it suggests to scrap everything on your system! So you prefer then to create your own partitioning config.

If you got your "/home" and "/" on the same partition, it's more complicated. Backup your home, format that partition, install, then restore your home (backup in any case!). To me this seems to be the simplest.

Thank you for your replies p_barill, as well as everybody else

I do use different partitions for / and /home, even 1 for /swap. I've always done it that way, even with windows as far back as I can remember. And, I do back up regardless

Ive only done clean installs with linux. I was picking whosever's head that wanted to comment, seeing what people thought. Seeing what I could learn about updating or salvaging the /home directory(partition).

When I look at the home directory I see all those system folders I think that could get messy when your taking one version of an os and programs, then using that same home directory with a new version and programs. Bound to be conflicts, some would be a pain troubleshooting.

Looks like Ive been taking the right approach all along
Backup, Backup Backup
Clean install
and set it up even better than before

thxs

You're welcome

Sure, when migrating, you should move away any hidden file and folder starting with a dot in your home, because to read old config files from older versions, that sounds odd (might crash, might slow down, might just overwrite old stuff and run fine...) I prefer to avoid those issues and start fresh. Time to kill the clutter. You know... it's like the cleanup wizard you run every five minutes in Windows. But this one is every few years

Once your account is up and running, you might want to restore a limited number ".folders" or ".files", like ".thunderbird" or some other mail client folder, for example.