Re: [Q] From RedHat to Debian
On Nov 05, 2002 at 09:26 -0800, Young-Jin Lee wrote:
>
> I am new to Debian and I am looking for some help installing Debian
> on my Thinkpad laptop. What is the best strategy to replace the
> existing RedHat Linux with Debian? In other words, I already have
> linux partitions on my laptop and I have downloaded one of mininum
> CD (LordSutch.com ISOLINUX mini-ISO image ,
> http://www.phy.olemiss.edu/debian-cd/). Is there any way for me
> easily to replace the RedHat linux with Debian?
I searched everywhere for such a howto before I switched from RedHat
to Debian, earlier this year. There is a detailed HOWTO but it's out
of date (based on RH 5.x), and I was intimidated by some of the steps;
e.g. some groups & users need to be renumbered, changes in libc, etc.
I wasn't very confident that I would get through it in one piece,
starting from RH 7.0. Search google for it if you want to check it
out. "redhat debian convert howto" or somesuch should pull it up.
Anyway, eventually I decided the best path for me was to back up my
data files, and start an installation from scratch. This worked
smoothly; I used tar to back up my user directory from RH to a CDR,
and also to another computer, and used a floppy installation to
install Debian. I did wipe and repartition my drive as part of the
install, so I didn't try to retain my old RH stuff. However, if you
have several partitions, you can move stuff out of the partition where
you plan to install Debian, and retain your existing files that way.
I couldn't be happier with the switch. Good luck!
--
Thatcher Ulrich
http://tulrich.com
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