RE: Migration Storm Linux - Debian
"COLPAERT, Koen" <koen.colpaert@lin.vlaanderen.be> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have an old (sic) Siemens Scenic 510 laptop on which I installed Storm
> Linux 2000. Since this no longer exists I would like to migrate to the
> regular Debian. I know everything works because I installed r2.2 (august
> 2000) in the past and everything worked fine. The trouble is I now have
> a working linux-box and I hate the idea I have to configure it all over
> again.
> I know there are procedures foor Libranet and Progeny to have an
> automatic migration to Debian. Does anybody know if this exists for
> Storm Linux too?
> --
> Koen Colpaert
Hi!
I don't think there is a "painless" way to do this. I have made the
jump from Stormix r2.2 --> Progeny (Newton) --> Debian (Potato) at the
times that each company went "belly-up", so maybe my experiences will
help your decision.
Progeny (Newton) and Debian (Potato) are quite similar and the
conversion is relatively painless. A LOT of the Progeny stuff is now
available in Debian. That process was relatively painless...mostly just
doing an apt-get dist-upgrade. The BIG jump was from Storm -->
Progeny. The major problem was getting rid of the Ximian GNOME on
Stormix and installing the regular GNOME in Progeny (and Debian). The
Progeny site had a "HOW-TO" on doing this, which I used, BUT I still had
significant problems which caused me to do quite a bit of manual work in
forcing certain packages to install. I don't even know if this "HOW-TO"
is available now, but if you can find it then that proceedure would be a
place to start. Be prepared to spend some time on this process...about
a half day or so! Even after sucessfully doing this, I still had bits &
pieces of Storm on my system...mainly in the form of text messages like
"Welcome to Storm Linux" SAS, and the Storm Package Manager (which
wouldn't work under Progeny), etc.
In my opinion, the cleanest way to make the change is to tar up your
user's HOME directories (to preserve any stuff you want to keep) and
store them in a safe place that won't be touched by a new install (burn
a CD, separate partition, on another machine, etc.). Don't forget stuff
you might have in the "root" directory that you want to save. You could
then wipe out the Storm install and install a fresh copy of Debian and
get it going. After you have a working system, you could migrate the
saved stuff back on to your new Debian system. In my case, the stuff I
wanted to save was various E-Mails from Netscape, the entire Netscape
directory (bookmarks), and a few external d/ls (pictures, mpegs,
non-debian apps like OSS-Free drivers, etc.). It was easy to just copy
this stuff back into my new HOME directories after the new install.
Debian Potato is an excellent choice right now...it is quite stable and
up-to-date with security fixes. It is at about the same level of
development that your Stormix was and the supported hardware is the same
or better. It installs quite painlessly in a "fresh" partition from
scratch, and setup shouldn't be much different than you experienced with
Stormix...especially their "text-based" install. Storm's "text" install
was essentially the same as the Debian installer.
You might also want to consider Debian Woody (testing). I have been
using it here for over 6 months and have found it quite "stable" and
usable in a home-lan setting. It provides good support for some more
current hardware that is not available in Debian Potato. Dunno much
about how each one installs on laptops since I don't have one here...
Hope this helps...Good Luck!
Cheers,
-Don Spoon-
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