Re: Most painless re-installation method
On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 10:48:10PM +1000, Kieren Diment wrote:
> I have had some rather bad disk corrpution (laptop battery failed on
> me I think). The easiest way for me to
> fix it as far as I can see is to re-install as there are a few key
> applications that don't work.. I have a root partition
> and a /home partition. Only the /root partion is affected. I can
> back up /etc which seems for the most part unaffected by the
> corruption.
>
> Can anyone suggest the most painless way to do this. I can back up
> /etc onto /home.
>
I am reminded of a line from "Aliens" to the effect of "I say we bug out
and nuke the whole complex from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
Definitely back up /etc. You will mostly use it as an occasional reference,
with a few selected files (like probably your X config file) you may copy
outright. Also, try to get a copy of your current package selections
with:
dpkg --get-selections > myselections
If you do this as root, make sure you move "myselections"
to the home partition, as root's home directory is in the root partition.
Later, when you have at least a minimal system freshly installed, you can
dpkg --set-selections < myselections
Download potato rescue.bin, root.bin, base2.2.tgz, drivers.tgz to your home
partition. Make rescue.bin and root.bin floppies with the dd command per
the installation instructions.
Boot with rescue.bin and follow the bouncing ball. If you want woody, I
think you have to at least start with potato since, as I understand,
woody boot disks are not ready for prime time yet.
Good Luck
Mike
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