Re: Changing from Debian 9.13 to Debian 11.3
On 21/4/22 8:03 pm, Richard Owlett wrote:
I am not upgrading in place.
I currently have Debian 9.13 installed on one partition with /home on a
different partition.
I will install Debian 11.3 on a fresh partition and have /home remain on
its current partition.
I'm aware of cautions about upgrading in-place cf
[https://www.debian.org/releases/bullseye/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html]
Are there things to be aware of when using the same /home partition on
both?
TIA
I believe that you may have difficulties accessing data files that you
have accessed from an application in 11.3, if you try to access them
using an earlier version of the application, on 9.13.
For example, should you use an application such as gramps, the data
could be stored in a different DBMS, between different versions.
Also, in later versions of an application, extensions may exist, that
did not exist in an earlier version.
Whilst this simple example could be overcome by using an equivalent, an
example, is that the version of office word processor (I use the term
"office", as you may have libre office or apache office, or, you may use
abiword) may have a font that you now prefer - the hairydogtail font,
and, in the version applicable to 9.13, may have had a font named
hairlesscattail font, and that may be deemed the equivalent font,
leading stuff to look somewhat different.
I think that, as I have multiple versions of operating system installed,
and, a separate home partition for each, what I do, is, if I want a data
file from a earlier version home partition, I copy it to the later
version home partition, and, depending on the nature of the file, do not
access it from the earlier version of the operating system.
A good example of problems that you could encounter, is that, if you use
alpine (the successor to pine), the configuration files are stored in
the home directory/partition, and, changes from one version to the next,
of alpine, mean that, whilst the later version may be able to import the
settings from an earlier version of alpine, it is unlikely that an
earlier version of alpine, can use the settings, and therefore, the
settings file(s) of a later version of alpine. Also, with alpine, it has
happened that the storing of the settings, has changed, from one version
to the next, being stored in multiple files, in the later version,
instead of a single file, in the earlier version. In Ubuntu Linux, this
also happened, with /etc/apt/sources.list, which became split, involving
a new directory. Whilst that is not of the Debian home partition, that
is an example of how things can change from one version to another.,
and, can show how accessing data files applicable to a later version of
an operating system, can be problematic when using an earlier version of
the same operating system.
I believe that what you would be best doing, is what I do; have a
separate home partition for each operating system; keep it small, about
32GB, and, have data partitions (I use data1, data2, data3, etc, each
with, as I figure, a maximum size of 64GB, for ease on backing up and
copying/transferring between computers, using thumb drives), in which,
most data, such as image files, PDF files, and word processing files are
stored, for access between different systems, with data files particular
to application software versions, such as, as mentioned, alpine
configuration files, that live in the home partition, kept in the home
partition specific to the operating system version.
Also, using external SSD drives, appropriately partitioned, aids
portability between operating systems on the same computer, and, between
computers.
But, I believe that sharing a home partition between different versions
of an operating system, is too troublesome, and, more trouble than it is
worth.
Of course, other people's opinions may differ from mine.
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............
Reply to: