Re: Repartitioning/Reinstalling
On Tue, Apr 23, 2002 at 03:48:41PM -0400, Rich Johnson wrote:
> Folks--
>
> Its time to repartition my disks. The plan is to:
> 1. Put all the user data I want to keep onto tape
> 2. Install debian from scratch (including repartition)
> 3. Restore .deb package database
> 4. Re-fetch current .debs
> 5. Restore user data and configuration data.
>
> My questions are:
> Is this feasable?
> How do I do Steps 3&4?
> Which /var/lib or /var/cache files do I need to save for the new
> installation?
> Which commands do I need to read-up on to effect the re-installation of
> the .debs?
>
Let me start with your goal - why, pray, would you want to reinstall?
When I first starting using Debian regularly more than two years ago I
used to do the same if I hit a snag. It's something I inherited from my
Windows days - reboot and reinstall.
Since then I have
1) partitioned my hard disk to create a new partition for
/usr, moved its contents from the / partition and then updated
/etc/fstab to mount /usr automatically,
2) upgraded from stable to testing,
3) resized /var, /tmp, /usr and / a couple of times as I reduced the
size of my Windows partition,
4) Upgraded from testing to unstable, and
5) Built my own computer and successfully transferred the hard disk from
the old one to the new.
In other words, I have done heck of a lot of rearranging/housekeeping,
so to speak, without doing a reinstall!
I don't know your motives, and I am not passing judgements on you. It's
just that I see "reinstall" questions so many times that I wonder if the
users out there realize just how sturdy the system is, and yet quite
flexible too. Most users are just so happy that the system doesn't crash
that I guess they don't expect more from it.
In any case, I am done with my rants. If you want to repartition without
reinstalling post a message here. By the way, don't ever forget the
backups, and experiment with doing a selective restore, if not a full
one, before you embark on making major changes to your system.
Good luck!
-Andy
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