[Novices] upgrade installation

[Eric Beversluis]

On Sat, 2006-03-04 at 17:10 +0000, Robert G. Brown wrote:
> On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 09:06:26 -0500, Eric Beversluis wrote:
> 
> >I'm about to upgrade my Mandrake 10.1 to Mandriva 2006. I'm not sure
> >exactly what I do about my home directory: How much of what the new
> >install creates should I keep and how much should I replace with the
> >backup of my current home directory? 
> It is ALWAYS a good idea to back up things you want to keep (and I won't
> argue with "everything") before a major upgrade.
> 
> Now, is this really an upgrade, or a new install? Ususally, upgrades
> do not touch home directories.

I'm contemplating a clean install--maybe even on a new HDD if I dcide to
go that way. My bad not to distinguish clearly. It will be an upgrade
with a clean install, not an upgrade install--my sense from what I've
read and heard is that upgrade installs are not such a good idea.
> 
> >1.  Presumably I create a user (ericb) when I do the install.
> OK, again, my question.. install or upgrade?
> 
> It is very common to so isolate home directories (like on a different
> partition or drive) that an install/upgrade doesn't see them.
So a new version, or even a new distro, doesn't (need to) change
anything in the home directories?

> 
> >2.  If so, do I then copy the entire contents of my old /home/ericb
> >directory, replacing what Mandriva has created, or do I need to keep
> >some of the new stuff? If so, what? (Initial hypothesis: just copy the
> >documents and documents directories and let Mandriva manage the hidden
> >files and folders? This doesn't seem quite right because, for example,
> >my email is in the .evolution folder. )
> 
> A lot of what I've said makes these issues moot. I would claim that backing
> up and restoring EVERYTHING (or detaching /home) is the best approach. In
> any case, you may run into some problems if the upgraded applications 
> treat files differently, but that's going to happen in any case, on any 
> system... Once you upgrades, go through things and make sure they work
> as expected. If they don't, read the upgrade documents, and see if they 
> have anything to say about the software that's misbehaving...
> 
> Good luck! 

> 							Regards,
> 							---> RGB <---

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