2009/5/17 Daniel Rhodes-Mumby <daniel.rhodes.mu...@googlemail.com>: > On Sun, 17 May 2009 08:29:07 +0100, Greg Herdman <gherd...@toucansurf.com> > wrote: > >> Hi Everyone, >> I'm really new to the Ubuntu scene; got involved about 6 months ago. >> Everything has been working fine until a recent update session. An >> incomplete update was signalled (I 'd just installed ClamTk and PiTiVi a >> day or so earlier. At first the screen dropped into 'basic' low-res >> mode. I managed to reset it using the appropriate desktop apppication >> (forgot it's name!) but the resolution wasn't quite as previously, so I >> tried to tweak it. Result - totally scrambled screen such that the >> desktop is unusable. >> >> I've been making basic use of Live mode from the installation CD, which >> works well with everything looking fine. I can access the harddrive, >> save and retrieve files, read and write removable media and also print. >> The downsides of Live user mode, however, are substantial, particularly >> in terms of speed, so I need to get back to my original settings. >> >> DSo, my question - I've noted a recent thread that seems to imply that I >> could reinstall over my current installation which would leave all my >> files within 'home' intact. Is this so? >> I'm using Ubuntu 8.04LTS (Hardy Heron) on a desktop. >> >> Any ideas - much appreciated. >> >> Greg >> >> > > I believe the Ubiquity Preserve Home spec was targeted and achieved for Hardy. > > If I'm correct in this belief then you can indeed reinstall Hardy (and indeed > you could upgrade to a more recent version of Ubuntu, although of course this > is a matter of preference) without damaging the contents of /home, as long as > you specified a separate partition for it in your original installation. > > If you did then you can run preserve /home quite easily (assuming I can > correctly recall the steps involved in doing so): > Run through the Ubuntu installer until you reach the partitioning stage > Choose manual partitioning > Select the partition with /home on it and choose to use it > Choose the correct filesystem, but also choose NOT to format it > Change the mountpoint to be /home
I think you only need to do this if the original installation had a separate partition for home. If you have a single partition for everything (except maybe swap), leave the mountpoint as / > Setup your other partitions appropriately and finish the installation > Working from memory, that's the correct (and easy) procedure; it does hang on > the existence of /home as a separate partition already, though. You could > work around that by migrating the content to a new partition while preserving > all the necessary file attributes and then choosing this partition during > installation, of course. 'Preserve Home' will delete all the existing data on the partition you select *except /home*. You don't need a separate /home partition. That's always worked (as long as you choose not to format it :-) > > It's probably best to wait for someone else to confirm the procedure to > preserve /home before you try, though; whilst I've done it many times, my > memory isn't always reliable and I'd rather that it wasn't responsible for > the loss of any of your data. If in doubt, backup first! Even if not in doubt, it's safer to have a backup. Then also check that the backup worked and you can restore from it. > Daniel > -- > Humanity is where the falling angel meets the rising ape. Cofion/Regards, Neil. -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
