Reinstalling/Downgrading Ubuntu

[Rashkae]

NoOp wrote:
>
> 
> Well... I got it to install using the hardy liveCD while maintaining
> home. It preserved the tempdir folder that I'd placed there & the gnome
> desktop settings. Before I post how I did that I want to repeat a few
> times (install jaunty, then back to hardy back to intrepid etc) to make
> sure that it sticks. Then I'll try the same with the alternate CD.
> 
> Note: AFAIK using this method only preserves /home. So if someone has a
> lot of added data/packages in /opt /usr/ etc., this excercise does them
> no good without backups of those directories of course. But preserving
> /home is the main goal here, so I'm happy on the first successful
> attempt. I of course have an alternate motive for getting this right...
> I have a college student that I gave one of my 'Ubuntu Christmas'
> systems to & I'm scheduled to give her a faster system in a few weeks
> following graduation & want to make the transition as easy as possible.
> I'll of course back up her entire drive before the swap, but this may
> make things go a little faster with the actual install part.
> 
> 
> 
> 


Trying to preserve anything but home is asking for trouble, if you end
up intermixing files that are not binary compatible, things break in
subtle ways, and god save you from the wrath of devs if someone spends
hours trying to debug a problem your having only to find that it's some
left over file.