Re: Converting a *live* Fedora box to Debian
On Sun, 6 Feb 2005, Craig Sanders wrote:
and if there isn't any free disk space, you can unmount the swap
partition and reformat it as ext2/3 or xfs or whatever and install a
Yes, this is a good idea.
easier to copy the data after rebooting into the mini debian partition but
before reformatting the old RH partitions - if you have enough free space on
the debian partitition (or somewhere easily accessible) that is.
I think that's the key - free space. If you're short any approach is more
difficult.
This sort of endeavour will fall apart if you make one mistake.
it is easy to screw up, but a few *little* mistakes wont kill the whole
system. be careful, think ahead and plan what you are going to do and it
should be a hassle-free procedure.
Yes you are right :) I was mainly trying to portray that mistakes can
kill the system when doing this. I would recommend against an
inexperienced admin doing this and wanted to make sure they understood
great care is required.
if it is at all possible, practice it on a local machine first - but try not
That's a good idea too.
When adminning remote boxes I make sure I have access to a serial console
whenever possible. More distros need to include it as part of the install
IMHO. There are no technical reasons the whole Linux install can't be
done through a serial console (as long as someone is ready to make bios
changes & the pop the CD at the right time[1]). This is even without
hardware support for a serial console. Having hardware support for a
serial console is all the better.
[1] ie, remote hands.
Cheers,
Rob
--
Robert Brockway B.Sc.
Senior Technical Consultant, OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.
Phone: 416-669-3073 Email: rbrockway@opentrend.net http://www.opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions: Reliable, secure solutions to real world problems.
Contributing Member of Software in the Public Interest (http://www.spi-inc.org)
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