mark_667 Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 Is there any single file or directory that stores the system settings and configuration that can be copied to floppy? I want to do a clean install of mandrake 10.1 (I'm currently using 10.0) as I need to dual boot my disk with Windows XP and don't want to have to re-configure everything. Will the settings file still be compatible (so I can just replace th existing one) or will I have to re-configure everything for the new version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris z Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 everything located in your /home/<you>/ directory are user specific settings & configs for apps. look through there. (enable "hidden file view" to see all directories) for instance, all of your KDE specific setting are in a hidden directory called /.kde. instead of picking & choosing various things, you could just burn your whole /home directory to a CD as a backup. if you do that, burn it as normal user so you don't get permission issues, & again, make sure you have the burning app set to grab hidden files. also, instead of completely reinstalling MDK (unless you're going to be repartitioning the whole drive) you could just use "expert install", format the partitions you want to, but leave /home untouched. that way Mandrake will install & you keep all of your /home intact. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 As chrisZ said about saving setup data files. The hidden files are the important ones especially the .kde if you save this one and the other visible folders containing your important files. Most important though if you use Kmail is the .Mail because this will have all your emails (received, sent and wastebinned) in it. Assuming a single account, in reality most everything else in your account can be wiped because a fresh install will recreate the appropriate hidden files in your account as they are needed by the applications, when you first open each one. Save this stuff to a cd-r/w so you can reuse the same disk each time you go through this routine, that way you don't end up with a heap of outdated and irrelevant disks. Save some other hidden files if you want, but it really is not necessary. Cheers. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamw Posted December 4, 2004 Report Share Posted December 4, 2004 agreed with aussiejohn; i generally back my whole /home up somewhere else, do a completely fresh install, and just copy stuff back as it's needed (if I install something and I realise I had a bunch of configuration from my previous install I just copy it back). Saves the problems that can occasionally be caused when apps stop being backwards compatible with old config files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griptypethyne Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 everything located in your /home/<you>/ directory are user specific settings & configs for apps. look through there. (enable "hidden file view" to see all directories) for instance, all of your KDE specific setting are in a hidden directory called /.kde. A really excellent piece of advice. I have lost count of the number of times I have re-installed Linux. Most times I get away with a pretend upgrade but on a few occaisions I have had to do a complete install. It is very frustrating to have to set up everything from scratch. I have always backed up the files I need to get Linux going again (for example, the kernel source and the win modem driver) but I have never thought of backing up *all* of the home directory, including the hidden files. I have a CD-RW in front of me. I know what I will be using it for! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 I see we have a GOON among us. Only a Goon would know about griptypethyne. uuulloo mate. Where you located ??? Curious. I've got nearly all of the BBC 33 1/3 Vinyl Albums containing two complete shows on each disk and have copied them all to CD. Love it and have done since I was a teen. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaschtroumpf Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 I always save /etc also. I didn't see it mentionned. You may have to manually diff the files between the new and the old version of Mandrake in case they changed, but knowing how your last system was setup is usually very useful. Files that speed up the process of configuring the new machine include sensors.conf, samba.conf, fstabs, apcupsd.conf (UPS config files), etc... When you rarely touch those files, it's sometimes hard to remember what you did to them, and while I keep notes, it's often nice to have the "original". Ideally all you need to do is perform an upgrade rather than a full re-install and it should keep your settings basically the same, and automativcally upgrade the files in /etc to work with the new version. Unfortunately I have had poor luck with upgrades on Mandrake in the past, so I tend to do a clean install, however during the install process I tell it not to format my /home directory: 99% of my settings remain intact that way, while keeping the "benefits" of a full install. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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