backup system before upgrade

[Default User]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Default User <hunguponcontent at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 16:11
Subject: Re: backup system before upgrade
To: jlblom at neuroweave.nl


Thanks to all who replied.

>From live cd, backed up doing:
sudo rsync -avv /source/directory/ /destination/directory
and then tried upgrade from within live cd.

As usual, Ubuntu upgrade failed.  Was using Gnome Classic desktop,
apparently upgrade function unable to handle (forced) conversion to Unity.

So did: rm -rf /source partition
then:
sudo rsync -avv /destination/directory/ /source/directory

Tried reboot.  Failed, with "missing file" error message at "grub rescue>"
prompt.
So, tried resetting and formatting main partition from within live cd, and
again:
sudo rsync -avv /destination/directory/ /source/directory

This time, failed with "incompatible license" error message at "grub
rescue>" prompt.

What ??? . . .

Ended up having to do fresh install from live cd, re-install applications
from Synaptic and the Ubuntu Software Center, then salvaging application
data from the backup.

Can't really construct a good system, though, because:
1) Gnome desktop no longer available.
2) Unity is too immature.
3) Ubuntu 11.10 (especially Unity) is  too shockingly dumbed down, suitable
for little more than to turn a computer into a huge, not-so-smart phone.

Maybe I will go back to Debian"Testing" . . .




On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 16:46, Joep L. Blom <jlblom at neuroweave.nl> wrote:

> On 10/14/2011 05:52 PM, Default User wrote:
>
>> Hello.
>>
>> What is the best way to do a full system backup of Ubuntu 11.4, in
>> preparation for upgrading to Ubuntu 11.10?  11.4 is just a single partition
>> (plus a swap partition, of course).  I want to back the main partition up to
>> another partition on the same hard drive.
>>
>> One way would be to boot the 11.10 live cd and then use the DD utility
>> from there, but wouldn't a single disk error mean the backup is useless?
>>
>> Is there a better way?  What are others doing to backup prior to
>> upgrading?
>>
>>
>>  My favourite:  backuppc (http://backuppc.sourceforge.**net/<http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/>) it is also in the repositories.
> Joep
>
>
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