Comments on: Installing (and reinstalling) Linux on your desktop

By: Temporary Saint

Temporary Saint — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:36:56 +0000

I decided to test TheGZeus’s process and and found the following changes need to be made to the commands he listed.

Line 2 should read:

cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/preferences /media/usbharddrive

For both of the dpkg commands a DOUBLE hyphen precedes the ‘get’ and ‘set’ parameters (they are actually there but hard to distinguish due to the typeface). Also for there should be a ‘>’ after the get-selections parameter to direct the output to the specified file. Likewise I presume a ‘<' should come after the set-selections parameter to direct the input from the file. However when I ran the

apt-get -y install

command, nothing was installed.

So TheGZeus, if you're out there can you help me out?

By: K.S. Bhaskar

K.S. Bhaskar — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:59:20 +0000

When setting up a computer, I always configure at least two root partitions and one /home. Each root partition mounts the other as /spare. So, I can always boot into either of two Linuxes. I especially use this for upgrades – copy one partition into the other (fiddling with /etc/fstab and updating the grub configuration) ensure that both work correctly and upgrade the spare. Once I am satisfied that it is wholesome, I update the grub to switch the default root and spare.

/home is always encrypted, and I always manually mount it post boot. There is a rudimentary /home in each root partition. When I cross international boundaries, laptops are always powered down, and in the (presumably unlikely but possible) eventuality the laptop is examined, I can always boot and login without mounting the encrypted /home.

By: The Doctor

The Doctor — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:08:35 +0000

Been there, done that. Good article!

By: randiroo76073

randiroo76073 — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:09:40 +0000

I run multiple distros and have always had a separate /home partition(as big as I had room for) and kept my / partitions to 15gb. I differentiate my user folder by my initials + distro name & have common folders(Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc) in /home. Makes sharing info between distros a snap, no syncing necessary.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:42:42 +0000

A reboot is not required in the last step unless you’re upgrading a kernel.
I’ve never had to re-install a Linux distribution on any of my machines,
despite some nasty situations, e.g., a hardware failure right in the middle of
a large package upgrade. If you know what you’re doing, you can work your way
out of most problems relatively quickly. It is best to keep a live CD or DVD
on hand, though, as a rescue environment – and be sure to learn the shell and
the layout of files in /etc from a good Linux administration book if you
aren’t experienced with Unix or Linux systems.

By: finid

finid — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:29:58 +0000

Aside from the LVM and separate /home partition suggestions, you should take a look at distros with a rollback gui tool. Pardus has it, and I believe Mandriva, too.

See the last latest review of Pardus http://linuxbsdos.com/2010/06/13/pardus-2009-2-review/

By: Shannon VanWagner

Shannon VanWagner — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:59:41 +0000

I usually setup 3 partitions, swap, /, and /home… This way I can always easily format an reinstall the system “/”.

Linux is very easy to refresh because it does a very good job of keeping user space stuff (personal settings, files, etc.) separate from system stuff (e.g., programs that can be reinstalled from the repositories with ease).

GNU+Linux is awesome!

By: Homer

Homer — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:59:55 +0000

Also. Use lvm or separate partitions for your /home and/or data and you can then install any number or distros on /, and import your /home and data. That way all your configuration isn’t overwritten on install of the core OS and you don’t have to re-setup and applications. As soon as they are installed they will be configured from your old configuration files in /home.

By: Homer

Homer — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:57:21 +0000

Just use re-writeable media. I’m often installing new or different distros and for this I use cd/dvd-rw’s. Why waste a bit of plastic when you don’t need to.

By: Alejandro

Alejandro — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:42:25 +0000

TheGZeus got it perfectly.
to make things even easier for the future make sure you install /home on it own partition from the beginning.

By: helios

helios — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:35:53 +0000

If the system did not automatically connect to your network, look around and help it find the network.

I haven’t had this happen since 2007 unless it was AT&T DSL or some obscure wireless hotspot dongle. Most major cable providers just connect.

But what about the drivers…I mean, like in Windows, what about going around and getting all the drivers…

Oh wait…we’re talking Linux here.

Never mind.

By: TheGZeus

TheGZeus — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:14:26 +0000

rsync -av /home /media/usbhardddrive
cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/preferences
dpkg –get-selections /media/usbhardddrive/selections.apt
*install testing*
rsync -av /media/usbhardddrive/home/ /home
cp /media/usbhardddrive/sources.list /media/usbhardddrive/preferences /etc/apt
apt-get update
*install needed keyrings/keys for repositories*
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
dpkg –set-selections /media/usbharddrive/selections.apt
apt-get -y install

Done.