Hi, On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 4:34 AM, 李白|字一日 <calid...@gmail.com> wrote: > > 2010/10/28 Evan Huus <eapa...@gmail.com> >> >> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 8:01 PM, Daniel Gross <daniel.gr...@utoronto.ca> >> wrote: >> > >> > The main benefit for such a setup, is that it allows reinstalling Ubuntu >> > without loosing the users data, which would be safely sitting in a >> > separate data partition. >> >> Putting it on a separate partition isn't actually necessary. Currently >> when Ubuntu is directed to install to a partition which previously had >> Ubuntu on it, it reinstalls only what is necessary, leaving things >> such as user settings intact. So this is effectively already done, >> just without the necessity for multiple partitions. > > I think it is why another partition is necessary. > sometimes users don't know which program causes their problems. > they want a clear reinstall except for their home folders. > and it is helpful to give a option to remove previous configurations in the > home folder.
I may be wrong but this feature during the install only keeps the home folder (and other well-known data places?) and removes the rest so it should not leave random extra files or system configuration. Anyway, I have been using a separate home partition for quite a while as it is a nice way to switch between different OSs (including stable and devel ubuntu). It is always possible to do so using the manual partitionner, which is arguably a power-user tool. >> > Taking this idea a step further, perhaps its possible to also preserve >> > the packages that were installed, so that these remain intact in the >> > data partition also. Perhaps a better name for the data partition could >> > be "User" partition, which includes all user configured, tailored, >> > created data. As opposed to the System partition which includes the base >> > OS only, and that can be reinstalled at will. >> >> Technically, every part of Ubuntu (including the base OS) is >> considered just an installed package, so doing this wouldn't be >> simple. I'm also having trouble seeing the use case for this - most >> people (in my experience) reinstall Ubuntu as a way to clean up cruft >> (or apparent cruft - a fresh install often feels faster just by >> placebo effect). Presumably they would want such packages removed, >> else why would they reinstall? They're may be something I'm missing, >> but I can't see "reinstalling while keeping current packages" to be a >> common desire. If you want to keep installed packages, you can upgrade instead of installing from scratch (if you don't skip a version or if you go from LTS to LTS, otherwise it may be painful). If you do not fear to fiddle with the command line, some of Debian's package management tools can help to reinstall the same selection of packages on your new system: see dpkg --get/set-selection for a rough approach and debfoster to build a list of packages you want to keep; taking dependancies into account. Of course it only works for packages that are available from apt repositories and is not so user friendly but I guess one could build a GUI based on the same principle. Alternatively, you can keep a list of packages you want and install them from the command-line. making it easier to build such lists and to apply them would make a nice feature for the software-center ;) Best regards. -- Aurélien Naldi -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
