Re: Strange New Installation Behavior

[David Christensen]

On 4/22/24 06:00, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
I am running Bookworm and cleaned up a couple of files too many 
resulting in a messed up Xfce Desktop. I decided that this would be a

 good time to reinstall the Bullseye.

I made a backup of my /home/comp directory using Deja-dup.

I downloaded and ran the 512 check sum on a copy of 
Debian-12.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso and ran the Graphical Install mode on

the 1.0 TD SSD on my Computer. The installation went smoothly without
any warning or error messages.

I logged in as root to set up the Desktop and, much to my surprise, 
found that my previous Desktop configuration was still there!!???

This was also the case when I logged in user!!!???

I have been using computers in my work since the 1960, the era of the
 Hollerith Card and tape drives and Linux since early days of
Slackware and the Red Hat Mother's Day Edition. Now I am not a
computer expert but a Research Chemist.  I have installed Linux OS's
many times and consider Linux my primary computational platform. I
have never encountered the situation and have no ideas as to what is
going on.

I have been runnind Debian since Etch.

I would appreciate some insight into what might be going on.

Thanks in advance.

Stephen P. Molnar, Ph.D. https://insilicochemistry.net (614)312-7528
(c) Skype: smolnar1



On 4/22/24 09:34, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:

I did not want to revert to Bullseye, but to reinstall to Bookworm.


I suggest that you buy a good 16 GB USB flash drive and install Debian 
12 with Xfce onto it.  Having a working live USB stick is very useful 
for low-level disk drive chores such as examining, backing up, testing, 
repairing, restoring, wiping, etc..  Use it to:


1.  Ensure that you have a good backup of your 1 TB SSD.

2.  Make additional backups or archives of all or part of your 1 TB SSD. 
 Note the mantra: "Data does not exist unless it exists in three places".


3.  Wipe the SSD so that the Debian installer will see a blank disk and 
respond accordingly when you later install Debian onto the SSD.



Regarding copying a home directory from one OS installation to another 
OS installation, please see my comments on another thread:


https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2024/04/msg00336.html


Once you have logged in to your new account on your fresh install, I 
suggest that you restore your /home/comp backup to a subdirectory and 
manually copy/ move/ edit/ merge files and directories from the restore 
subdirectory into your fresh home directory.  Be very careful not to 
damage or delete anything needed by your fresh desktop or applications.



David

Re: Strange New Installation Behavior

[Stephen P. Molnar]

On 04/22/2024 11:03 AM, debian-u...@howorth.org.uk wrote:

Michael Kjörling <2695bd53d...@ewoof.net> wrote:

On 22 Apr 2024 09:00 -0400, from s.mol...@sbcglobal.net (Stephen P.
Molnar):

I downloaded and ran the 512 check sum on a copy of
Debian-12.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso and ran the Graphical Install mode on
the 1.0 TD SSD on my Computer. The installation went smoothly
without any warning or error messages.

I logged in as root to set up the Desktop and, much to my surprise,
found that my previous Desktop configuration was still there!!???
This was also the case when I logged in user!!!???

It sounds to me like you intended to do a clean reinstall, but the
obvious question given the observed behavior is: did you actually do
that? For example, did you actually reformat (create file systems
anew)?

My guess would be that you installed _on top of_ the previous
installation rather than wiping and replacing it; so I'd start with
seeing if that hypothesis can be ruled out. An easy way might be to
check /var/cache/apt/archives and look for old linux-image .deb files.
If it's a freshly installed system, there should only be one or two,
likely at 6.1.0-20 for Bookworm. If you see any kernel older than
6.1.0-18, those are remnants from a previous installation (Debian 12.5
shipped with kernel ABI 6.1.0-18
.)

He said he wanted to revert to Bullseye rather than Bookworm, so it's
to be expected that there will be older kernels, if that's really what
he meant and what he did. But as you say, without a clear statement of
the intent and the actions taken it's difficult to be sure.


I did not want to revert to Bullseye, but to reinstall to Bookworm.

--
Stephen P. Molnar, Ph.D.
https://insilicochemistry.net
(614)312-7528 (c)
Skype:  smolnar1

Re: Strange New Installation Behavior

[Michael Kjörling]

On 22 Apr 2024 16:03 +0100, from debian-u...@howorth.org.uk:
> He said he wanted to revert to Bullseye rather than Bookworm, so it's
> to be expected that there will be older kernels, if that's really what
> he meant and what he did. But as you say, without a clear statement of
> the intent and the actions taken it's difficult to be sure.

You're right. Except the reference to a Debian 12 ISO would definitely
be Bookworm, where 12.5 is current, so that part checks out.

At this point I'm guessing that the reference to Bullseye is a
mistake.

Hopefully it'll be a while before we have three consecutive releases
with codenames all beginning with the same letter (Buster, Bullseye,
Bookworm). I'm probably not the only one who's got them mixed up on
occasion. Bookworm / Trixie / Forky should be easier to keep apart.
Looking at Wikipedia's summary table it doesn't look like there has
otherwise been any _two_ consecutive releases (ignoring Sid) where the
codenames began with the same letter, much less three.

-- 
Michael Kjörling  https://michael.kjorling.se
“Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”

Re: Strange New Installation Behavior

[debian-user]

Michael Kjörling <2695bd53d...@ewoof.net> wrote:
> On 22 Apr 2024 09:00 -0400, from s.mol...@sbcglobal.net (Stephen P.
> Molnar):
> > I downloaded and ran the 512 check sum on a copy of
> > Debian-12.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso and ran the Graphical Install mode on
> > the 1.0 TD SSD on my Computer. The installation went smoothly
> > without any warning or error messages.
> > 
> > I logged in as root to set up the Desktop and, much to my surprise,
> > found that my previous Desktop configuration was still there!!???
> > This was also the case when I logged in user!!!???  
> 
> It sounds to me like you intended to do a clean reinstall, but the
> obvious question given the observed behavior is: did you actually do
> that? For example, did you actually reformat (create file systems
> anew)?
> 
> My guess would be that you installed _on top of_ the previous
> installation rather than wiping and replacing it; so I'd start with
> seeing if that hypothesis can be ruled out. An easy way might be to
> check /var/cache/apt/archives and look for old linux-image .deb files.
> If it's a freshly installed system, there should only be one or two,
> likely at 6.1.0-20 for Bookworm. If you see any kernel older than
> 6.1.0-18, those are remnants from a previous installation (Debian 12.5
> shipped with kernel ABI 6.1.0-18
> .)

He said he wanted to revert to Bullseye rather than Bookworm, so it's
to be expected that there will be older kernels, if that's really what
he meant and what he did. But as you say, without a clear statement of
the intent and the actions taken it's difficult to be sure.

Re: Strange New Installation Behavior

[Michael Kjörling]

On 22 Apr 2024 09:00 -0400, from s.mol...@sbcglobal.net (Stephen P. Molnar):
> I downloaded and ran the 512 check sum on a copy of
> Debian-12.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso and ran the Graphical Install mode on the 1.0
> TD SSD on my Computer. The installation went smoothly without any warning or
> error messages.
> 
> I logged in as root to set up the Desktop and, much to my surprise, found
> that my previous Desktop configuration was still there!!??? This was also
> the case when I logged in user!!!???

It sounds to me like you intended to do a clean reinstall, but the
obvious question given the observed behavior is: did you actually do
that? For example, did you actually reformat (create file systems
anew)?

My guess would be that you installed _on top of_ the previous
installation rather than wiping and replacing it; so I'd start with
seeing if that hypothesis can be ruled out. An easy way might be to
check /var/cache/apt/archives and look for old linux-image .deb files.
If it's a freshly installed system, there should only be one or two,
likely at 6.1.0-20 for Bookworm. If you see any kernel older than
6.1.0-18, those are remnants from a previous installation (Debian 12.5
shipped with kernel ABI 6.1.0-18 .)

-- 
Michael Kjörling  https://michael.kjorling.se
“Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”

Strange New Installation Behavior

[Stephen P. Molnar]

I am running Bookworm and cleaned up a couple of files too many 
resulting in a messed up Xfce Desktop. I decided that this would be a 
good time to reinstall the Bullseye.


I made a backup of my /home/comp directory using Deja-dup.

I downloaded and ran the 512 check sum on a copy of 
Debian-12.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso and ran the Graphical Install mode on the 
1.0 TD SSD on my Computer. The installation went smoothly without any 
warning or error messages.


I logged in as root to set up the Desktop and, much to my surprise, 
found that my previous Desktop configuration was still there!!??? This 
was also the case when I logged in user!!!???


I have been using computers in my work since the 1960, the era of the 
Hollerith Card and tape drives and Linux since early days of Slackware 
and the Red Hat Mother's Day Edition. Now I am not a computer expert but 
a Research Chemist.  I have installed Linux OS's many times and consider 
Linux my primary computational platform. I have never encountered the 
situation and have no ideas as to what is going on.


I have been runnind Debian since Etch.

I would appreciate some insight into what might be going on.

Thanks in advance.

Stephen P. Molnar, Ph.D. https://insilicochemistry.net (614)312-7528 (c) 
Skype: smolnar1