Re: Fwd: Re: [PLUG] Adding a new HD

[Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net>]

LeRoy Cressy wrote:

> Art Alexion wrote:
> | LeRoy Cressy wrote:
> |
> |>
> |> | Now, a follow up question:  If I plan to install a new distro on the
> |> | remaining 15 g, should I move /home first, or wait for the new
> |> distro to
>
> |> Why do you want to install a new distro?  Is the current distribution
> |> broken?
> |
> |
> | Current distribution is Red Hat 7.3; long in the tooth, but working
> | well.  Still, won't work with some things I want to try.
> |
> | Want to install additional to see how new distro runs on this machine
> | before trashing existing system.
> |
> |
>
> Have you decided on the distribution?  Since you have a new 20G drive,
> why not partition with separate partitions for / /usr /var /home
> /usr/local /boot?  I prefer this way to protect the system from myself
> and mount the system partitions as read only.  It makes upgrading a
> little difficult because you have to remount /usr and /boot everytime
> you upgrade, but with this scheme you cannot do something stupid as root
> like rm -rf /* when you think that you are in as chroot enviroment.
> That was one of the dumbest things I have ever done.


My first two systems were RH 5.2 & 6.2.  I read the RH manual from the 
boxed set before installing 5.2, and the maddog Dummies book before 
installing 6.2.  These distros went on an old computer that Windows 
didn't like after a move (would recognize either the NIC or the CD-ROM, 
but refused to acknowledge both simultaneously.  I had bought 5.2 the 
year before to try on a laptop with an external CD-ROM, but the 
installer refused to recognize the drive to install from the CDs, and I 
never braved a network install.  Anyway, I followed the recommendations 
for partitioning and was thereafter precluded from installing Corel 
Office (I had been using Quattro Pro & Paradox for my work in Windows) 
due to inadequate space in the target partition (though there was plenty 
of space on the drive).

By the time I tossed them for RH 7.2, I narrowed my partition choices to 
/, /boot & /swap.  Problem now is that I have been using 7.3 a long time 
and have a lot of stuff I don't want to lose.

[The stupidest thing I have done is delete stuff -- as a normal user -- 
in Konqueror split view, when moving stuff from one computer to 
another.  I kept losing track of which pane was which and deleted stuff 
before copying it.  I have switched to gentoo for graphical file 
management; it seems to be intuitively clearer where you are.  Never did 
anything stupid as root -- yet.]

> For a listing of the distributions that are
> now available see http://www.linux.org/dist/list.html
>
> Now there are more distributions than I want to count.
>
> This way you can access the same home directory while seeing what distro
> is best for you.
Russell Nordquist wrote:

> 7.3 is long in the tooth. Upgrading is a good idea. My advice is to
> install the new distro and let it make a home directory in the /
> partition (not in it's own partition). After the install, make sure your
> uid's match up with the old (good) home, and then mount it over /home in
> the / partition of the new install. this way you don't risk the
> installer trying to format you good home partition or something silly. 
>  
I took Sean Finney's advice and rysnc'ed home to the new 5 g partition 
renamed the old /home to /home.old and mounted the new partition on 
/home.  So I have a working /home in the new partition of the new 
drive.  I think I will follow your advice and install the new distro 
with it's own /home, and then mount the /home partition within it.  
Meanwhile, I can keep the backup /home.old in case anything goes wrong.

> I'm willing to bet that once you have a more recent Linux install you
> won't look at 7.3 again, so you are going to have the space it is
> installed in for something in the future.
>  
That is what I am hoping.

> what distro are you going to try for the new one?
Well, I have a copy of Mandrake 9.1 (heard there were CD-ROM problems 
with 9.2) that I might try.  Novell is sending me the kit with SuSe, but 
I don't have access to a DVD in order to burn the ISOs, so I have to get 
someone to do it for me.

I have been intrigued with a hardware optimized Gentoo install, but 
don't have any ISOs or CDs.

Any opinions -- plus or minus -- on those choices?

--

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Art Alexion
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