Karen....if you're formatting all of your linux partitions when you
install, then that's a clean install. I believe that GAIM stores your
contact list info on a web server, not on your local file system.
Alan
"Karen M. Heiby" wrote:
>
> I would like to know how to cleanly uninstall Linux. I'm having peculiar
> problems that I think can only be fixed with a clean install.
>
> Here's what I've tried *several times over* but still does not work:
>
> 1.) Deleting the Linux partition from Windows
> a.) (In Windows 98) filling up my hard drive with junk--totally, then
> deleting the junk (just to make sure anything of Linux that might still
> be there is overwritten)
> b.) scandisk (Windows 98) and defrag (Windows 98)
>
> or
>
> c.) formatting the entire hard drive (with DOS "fdisk") and reinstalling
> Windows 98, repartitioning it for Linux (Partition Magic) and then
> reinstalling Linux
>
> 2.) Going into Linux as root, going to /, and typing the rm -fr /* command,
> which
> a.) gets stuck even if I wait a couple hours, I don't see anything
> happening.
>
> 3.) Going into runlevel 3 as root, going to /, and deleting each directory
> individually with "rm -fr nameofdirectory"
> a.) (However: I can't delete /proc
> b.) and I can't delete /lib)
>
> then,
>
> c.) I boot to DOS with a disk and using "fdisk \mbr" to delete LILO
> d.) I reinstall Linux
>
> All three methods fail to get rid of my problems. For ex., KDE freezes when I
> use KFM to browse the /mnt directory. No other file managers (Gnome, KDE file
> manager, or any terminal) freeze, and it is not a permissions problem. It's
> just KFM/KDE! When I click the /dev directory in KFM and look at its
> permissions properties, the text (User, Group, Other) is grayed out but the
> checkboxes are nonfunctional but the proper permissions are assigned. Same goes
> for everything else in /dev. I can use chmod or any other file manager to
> modify permissions and have done so.
>
> GAIM (AOL Instant Messenger clone) is retaining my contact list, when that
> should never happen if it were a clean install. This is not a problem, per se,
> but just an indicator that I still have old information from previous
> installations haunting which are likely the cause of my persistent
> problems.
>
> Gnome's "Settings" on the panel is kaput. I can click Gnome Control Center and
> get it running, but if I click anything else on the Panel under
> Settings, (Multimedia, Peripherals, etc. ) nothing happens. That's just a
> minor annoyance since I can use these from Gnome Control Center anyway, but
> annoying nonetheless.
>
> During installation, I am never asked certain questions that I vaguely remember
> being asked the very first time I installed Linux, such as how much RAM do I
> have, etc. It seems to install as if it knows or thinks it's installing on top
> of another installation of itself.
>
> What gets me is that after I tried Route #1(above), by filling up my hard drive,
> I should have written over anything hard drive clusters that had Linux in them
> at one time, right? Even the boot record was re-made with a new LILO. How come
> old Linux glitches are still haunting me? Why is my GAIM contact list still
> intact when it shouldn't be?
>
> I really want to cleanly install Linux to solve some of my problems and give me
> peace of mind and solid footing for more learning, but I have a problem doing
> so when I know this machine isn't as pure as I'd like it to be. That is, when
> something goes wrong, how do I know whether I'm doing something wrong or if
> it's just a bad installation? That's tough on a newbie. Any ideas would be
> helpful.
>
> Thanks,
> Karen
