Reinstalling/Downgrading Ubuntu

[NoOp]

On 05/20/2009 04:35 PM, NoOp wrote:
...
> 
> ***DISCLAIMER****NOT FINISHED TESTING YET***
...
> Need to:
> 1. Boot to jaunty drive to see if if survives grub following sda hardy
> tests.
> 2. Install jaunty on sda1 and see if it keeps hardy test /home.
> 3. Reinstall hardy on sda1 to see if it keeps jaunty /home.
> 
> 

 Install jaunty on sda1 and see if it keeps hardy test /home.

6:25 PM.
Working...
Seems to think that my 8 char password is less than 8 chars and nags me
to enter a more secure password stating that my
password is less than 8 characters (it is exactly 8 w/alpha and numerals
mixed).
6:27 PM - installing.
Crapped with warning that the CD may have had issues. However it
actually completed with a jaunty screen. Unfortunately, the /home from
hardy is
gone, so I'm checking cd integrity (perhaps it was burned too high of
speed - burning a lower speed at 8x just in case).
Original CD check shows 'no errors found'.

Reboot & find hardy again in grub menu. But get "Server Authorization
directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to
/var/lib/gdm but this does not exist. Please correct GDM configuration
and restart GDM. Perhaps this has to do with
the hardy .gnome et al folders? Click 'OK' and get "Ubutu 9.04 rothera
tty1 and 'rothera login:' wtf?
Boot again and go to hardy kernel recovery mode. Get logged into
root at rothera:~#

Whole process is borked. Load Hardy liveCD in 'Try Ubuntu' mode. Find
that jaunty liveCD actually created a new (screwed up) partition and
notice that my /home is now on '4.3GB Media'. Fast burn to cd - older cd
didn't mix but slow burn to cd works:

Reinstall hardy - use the entire drive & add a ~/tempdir w/folders and
/opt w/folder.

Now using jaunty 8x liveCD to install. Get a slightly different screen
at the partition section:
"This computer has Ubuntu 8.04 (8.04) on it."
Where to you want to put Ubuntu 9.04?
o Install them side by side, choosing between them at each startup (by
default this is checked)
o Install using the entire disk
o Specify partitions manually (advanced) (I select this as I did w/hardy
liveCD)

 Forward
Again I choose to 'Edit Partition' /dev/sda1 ext3 (format unchecked -
interestingly enough I don't see a 'free' section)
Again I select:

Use as: ext3
 Format Partition: UNCHECKED
 Mount Point: /
  OK
  Forward
and again I get the standard warning "The file system on /dev/sda1
assigned to / has not been
marked for formating...".
  Continue
Use same usename, password, and computername.
  Forward
Get the same stupid warning:
  "You entered a password that consists of less than eight characters,
which is considered too weak.
you should choose a stronger password"
I guess jaunty isn't smart enough to count an 8 alpha/num character
password...
o Require a password to login
  Continue
Unlike hardy, jaunty doesn't find my other drive files to import - this
section is blank.
  Forward
Get warning screen as in hardy teling me that the following partitions
are going to be formated... wait a minute; did hardy
actually tell me that partion #5 (swap) was going to be formated? I'll
check later.
  Install
Installation is complete - restart now.
Restart gives jaunty kernel at grub. Get new cool jaunty gdm login
screen, gnome desktop comes up and items that I'd added to the
bottem panel are there. Screen is screwed at 1280x960, but easily fixed
& stupid update manager window comes up automatically.
Now for the important part: /home is intact & complete, /opt folder that
I'd placed in there (new one this time) is intact and there.
Success - I have jaunty with /home and /opt from hardy in place & working!

So, it seems that the reinstalls do indeed work while keeping the /home
and /opt directories in place. Still needs further testing (tomorrow),
but for now it looks pretty good.

NoOp