Re: linux debian installation preserving dos
On Mon, 6 Apr 1998, Valerie CAYOL wrote:
> A old version of linux is already installed on my computer
> and the disk is partitionned between linux and dos.
> I would like to install a new version of linux (debian linux 131), keeping
> my dos partition untouched. Is this possible and if so, could anyone tell
> me how I can do that ?
This should be no problem.
Part of the installation procedure on the debian 1.3.1 install floppies is
a cfdisk session. With cfdisk you can alter the parttioning scheme on the
harddisk.
In your case, just leave the dos partition as it is. It will stay the way
it was. You may also want to keep the partitioning scheme of the linux
partitions, if you are happy with the way you have set the harddisk for
the previous installation of linux.
But maybe you want to do it all over. In that case, simply remove
(delete) the linux partitions (keeping the dos partition intact) and
create new linux partitions in the free space. Don't forget to make a
swap partition.
When you're done with the partitions, whether or not you've changed the
partition layout, the next step (after creating and adding swap space) is
to create file systems on the partitions. Again, don't touch the linux
partition (don't worry, the installer program will ignore the dos
partition.)
If you have a lot of files in your home directory and the home directories
are on a separate partition (and you haven't erased that partition with
cfdisk), you may want to choose to keep that home partition. In that case,
don't initialize a filesystem on that partition, just let it be the way it
was.
You should reinitialize the other filesystems so that debian linux has
clean filesystems to install its files on.
Next, you'll have to mount the filesystems. First mount the root
filesystem, then mount the other filesystems on top of that. If you have
kept a previous home filesystem, mount that partition on /home. I am not
entirely sure, but it is possible that the installation program even lets
you mount the dos partition, you can mount it on /dos for example.
When you've setup debian once, you'll never have to do this again if you
later want to upgrade. Once you have debian running you can upgrade with
dpkg and dselect while your system keeps running. No need to even reboot
(except in exceptional cases.)
Cheers,
Joost
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
Reply to: