some handy tools and questions

[Kim Cascone]

UBUNTU-RESCUE - not sure if this has been posted here but this could  
prove useful to some:
http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/
*I've had trouble getting it to boot from a USB stick but I have  
posted a question about this in the Ubuntu-Rescue forum that will  
hopefully be answered and solve my problem

QUICKSTART - a very handy tool/app:
http://quickstart.phpbb.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11
======================================

GNOME-SCREENSAVER
==============
q1: how do I switch back to xsreensaver from the crapware gnome- 
screensaver?
I've Googled but all I found was a workaround of copying down  
settings in xscreensaver and entering them into a .conf for gnome- 
screensaver
isn't there a way to just get rid of gnome-screensaver without  
causing too much damage?

and last but not least:
================
q2:
- I have a barebones mini9 with 512M RAM and a 4G SSD
- I've purchased a 2G RAM card
- I also plan on purchasing a 32G SSD this week
- I've installed 8.10 w/ no swap space, 2 partitions: /home and
root , ext2 filesystem

- since I am buying a bigger SSD this week I want to backup my mini9
drive onto a 250G USB hard drive then restore it onto the 32G when it
comes in

- but I've got this weird problem:
    - I formatted the drive this way:
    - using Gparted I unmounted the drive
    - formatted it as an ext2 file system - since FAT32 max file size
is 4G and my tar backups will most likely be larger than this
    - not being able to remount it via Gparted I unplugged it and
plugged it back in
    - it showed up on the desktop
    - using the file browser I tried to make a dir called 'backup' but
the 'create folder' selection was grayed out
    - the /media/driveForBackup/ dir had a lock on it
    - I was able to sudo mkdir on the drive

but I am not able to back up on it using 'sbackup' since the backup
dir is locked
q1: do I just change the owner with chown?
q2: why does Gparted create a drive partition that is owned by root
and not by the user logged in? am I doing something wrong here?
q3: since I am only backing and restoring up '/home/' will everything
be restored to its current state (i.e. new apps, utilities,
environment settings, etc) after installing a new system on the 32G SSD?

all links, pointers, suggestions, enlightenment appreciated
:)
Cheers!
KIM