On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 4:21 PM, Paul G. Allen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
> Carl Lowenstein wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 11:35 AM, Paul G. Allen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
> >
> > > Carl Lowenstein wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > I've already volunteered, off-list. If I didn't already have such a
> > > > DVD in hand, I could produce another in 25 to 30 minutes. Burned,
> > > > byte-checked, and labeled. Could even make a batch of 3 in about the
> > > > same time, but that seems excessive.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > I tried a FC8 Live CD, but it wanted to remove all Linux partitions and
> > > install clean. I can't be doing that as there's data on the drive I
> don't
> > > want to lose. I'm going to try a FC7 Rescue CD, but I'm not keeping my
> hopes
> > > up with that. If it fails, I'll be contacting Carl about getting a FC7
> and
> > > FC8 DVD (FC7 to fix what I have, and FC8 to update after that).
> > >
> >
> > That is not mandatory. You have the option of a custom partition
> > scheme, in which you can choose which partitions to keep and which to
> > reformat. Actually I did that myself about 3 hours ago to my spare
> > computer in the back room.
> >
> > At the top of the partitioning page, there is a slot that says
> > something like "remove all Linux partitions" but it can be scrolled to
> > a few other choices, one of which is custom partition.
> >
>
> I was thinking of using this option(custom partition) with a FC7 Live CD.
> First I'll have to boot with a rescue CD to see which partitions are which,
> and write them down.
My experience this afternoon upgrading a FC6 system to F8 with the
live CD was that "custom partition" told me where each partition had
previously been mounted. So I could then choose to mount them in the
same place, and reformat some and not others. The only interesting
glitch was that the Live CD installer insisted on having a big /
partition because it didn't understand that a lot of stuff would go to
/usr. Fortunately my previous partitioning scheme had / and /usr next
to one another, so I could delete both of them and then create a new /
to fill up all the empty space.
>
> >
> > The Rescue CD is mostly for repairing existing systems, which might be
> > what you want, but it's hard to tell from this far away.
> >
> >
>
> I found that using the rescue CD, there's a LOT of stuff missing from the
> system on the HDD. This includes many standard Linux commands. I'm not sure
> which packages are missing, but with a FC7 CD, I can copy the important
> missing stuff from the CD (like the many things in /usr/bin) to the HDD and
> it should work and I should be able to log in. (One of the things that is
> missing is a shell - any shell, they're all gone.)
>
> It's interesting to see how much is gone, but yet the system still boots
> into single user mode and the data that is left on the HDD can still be
> accessed via a live or rescue CD.
You might consider attaching an external USB disk and copying off all
the stuff you want to keep. Then you can do a complete install of the
new OS, and copy things back.
carl
--
carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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