[xubuntu-users] Upgrading from Ubuntu to Xunbuntu

[Peter Flynn]

On 05/15/2013 09:55 PM, James Freer wrote:
> On Wed, 15 May 2013, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>>>
>>> But a regular install from USB or CD will want to reformat the disk, of
>>> course, and the machine has everything in one partition (/)
>>>
>>> Is there a way to do it as an upgrade, so that /home is preserved?
>>>
>>> I can of course use the backup to copy /home and other stuff back after
>>> an install, but there's a lot of it, and an upgrade would be faster.
> 
> I read your post with interest as I used to do an install with "format
> entire disk" - after having copied all work files to backup remote
> drive. I found this helpful as it removed junk like old hidden files and
> some application config files which don't seem to be removed with
> synaptic or apt-get autoremove. It also forced me to do some
> housekeeping and rubbish like revision files.

I tend to do this on machines I take over which have much older systems
installed (or, of course, inferior operating systems :-) for the reason
you describe (clean sweep).

But I do pretty much always partition the disk[s] to give me /home,
/var/www, and /usr/local as separate partitions, as those are the places
I do most work, and they are not usually touched by operating systems
software.

In the current case, the machine was new, and was not being used for
development, just office work, so I didn't bother.

> With 12.04 for the first time I had a separate /home partition. Which
> seems to be the way to go! But then one finds one is left with the old
> hidden files and other stuff. I also found that the auto disk checking
> didn't seem to work properly with a separate /home partition. Best
> solution I've found is just to have a second disk for data and do a
> complete *buntu install every release on the main drive. That's what
> I'll be doing shortly for 13.04 - it means one has to have a second HD
> but i think it's worth it.

On production machines I use separate spindles for data and dev code,
and I usually reformat it by hand, using a 1024 block size, because most
of my work involves humungous numbers of rather small files, and this
way I don't have to waste Gb of space with padding to the 496 boundary.

Back in the stone age, when I was using Red Hat and early Fedora, I just
accepted the installer's suggested disk geometry. Subsequent upgrades
showed this to be inadequate (usually /usr/local too small). But over
the upgrades, the system acquired more and more cruft, and started to
suffer bit-rot, with files going missing, as the OS became bigger and
more complex, and developers changed their minds about file names and
locations.

Ubuntu has been much more stable, although I suspect the Fedora has
probably become more stable at the same time.

Ubuntu upgrades are largely painless, except for the random pop-ups
asking if I want to keep this or that config file. This is annoying when
you have left the office for a meeting, or lunch, or something,
expecting to find it all done when you return; only to find it stopped
at 5% because of some modal dialog. An option to preserve all config
files, and to disable the screensaver by default, would ensure that an
upgrade ran through without interruption.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

///Peter