[ubuntu-uk] Scrambled screen

[Daniel Rhodes-Mumby]

On Sun, 17 May 2009 08:29:07 +0100, Greg Herdman <gherdman at toucansurf.com> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
> I'm really new to the Ubuntu scene; got involved about 6 months ago.
> Everything has been working fine until a recent update session. An
> incomplete update was signalled (I 'd just installed ClamTk and PiTiVi a
> day or so earlier. At first the screen dropped into 'basic' low-res
> mode. I managed to reset it using the appropriate desktop apppication
> (forgot it's name!) but the resolution wasn't quite as previously, so I
> tried to tweak it. Result - totally scrambled screen such that the
> desktop is unusable.
>
> I've been making basic use of Live mode from the installation CD, which
> works well with everything looking fine. I can access the harddrive,
> save and retrieve files, read and write removable media and also print.
> The downsides of Live user mode, however, are substantial, particularly
> in terms of speed, so I need to get back to my original settings.
>
> DSo, my question - I've noted a recent thread that seems to imply that I
> could reinstall over my current installation which would leave all my
> files within 'home' intact. Is this so?
> I'm using Ubuntu 8.04LTS (Hardy Heron) on a desktop.
>
> Any ideas - much appreciated.
>
> Greg
>
>

I believe the Ubiquity Preserve Home spec was targeted and achieved for Hardy.

If I'm correct in this belief then you can indeed reinstall Hardy (and indeed you could upgrade to a more recent version of Ubuntu, although of course this is a matter of preference) without damaging the contents of /home, as long as you specified a separate partition for it in your original installation.

If you did then you can run preserve /home quite easily (assuming I can correctly recall the steps involved in doing so):
	Run through the Ubuntu installer until you reach the partitioning stage
	Choose manual partitioning
	Select the partition with /home on it and choose to use it
	Choose the correct filesystem, but also choose NOT to format it
	Change the mountpoint to be /home
	Setup your other partitions appropriately and finish the installation

Working from memory, that's the correct (and easy) procedure; it does hang on the existence of /home as a separate partition already, though. You could work around that by migrating the content to a new partition while preserving all the necessary file attributes and then choosing this partition during installation, of course.

It's probably best to wait for someone else to confirm the procedure to preserve /home before you try, though; whilst I've done it many times, my memory isn't always reliable and I'd rather that it wasn't responsible for the loss of any of your data.

Daniel
-- 
Humanity is where the falling angel meets the rising ape.