IF I decided to upgrade.

[eXtremist]

When I installed RH7, I didn't make tons of partitions for each part of my directory tree.. I only have one part. for swap, and one for /.

Anyways, Since redhat 7 bites, I'm probably gonna wanna upgrade when 7.x comes out. If I specify NOT to format when I install this, will it completely shag my system?

I'm thinking about just saving the home directories to a CD and then putting them back on later. Is this a good idea?

[njcajun]

First of all, if RH7 'bites' why would you upgrade to another RH product?
Second, what are you basing this judgement on? What, specifically, 'bites'
IMHO, your partitioning scheme is indicative of newbie status, so you're probably not experienced enough to say whether or not it 'bites'.

Anyway, to answer your question, if you only have a single user or 'couple-user' system, you really don't need the whole directory tree, though you can tar it up and put it on a cd and it'll work. I've done it, but I left /home in place and just tarred the subdirectories (the user folders). Then I cd'd to /home on the new box and untarred everything and all was well.

If you really need the files, it's fine. You could also back it up to another computer, which is a bit neater IMHO.

Do some RTFM on partitioning schemes. It's a good idea to have a couple of partitions in place. I use one for /home and one for /opt, so if I upgrade, I don't format those partitions, and don't lose my software and files.

On my network and web servers I also put a nice fat /var partition because the logs can really get quite large.

[eXtremist]

Woah.. Take it easy there guy..

I've been using RedHat since v.4, and I am more than experienced enough to tell you RH7 BITES. I had many partitions for RH the first time around, and when I upgraded my system I thought I'd upgrade my OS also. Practicing the 'you won't learn anything if you always do it the same' pragma, I decided to simply make one partition (well, 3 actually) for my filesystem. (<swap>, /boot, and /)

You want to know why it bites? Where should I start? RH has a way of 'hacking' perfectly good code to the point where it doesn't work anymore (try glibc on for size). Also, up2date ends up breaking more than it fixes usually. I know redhat well enough to realize that their x.0 versions don't usually cut it. I thought this one would be different.. I thought wrong.

I did RTFM, and I know the advantages/disadvantages of partitioning schemes. I don't need a lecture on that, thank you. I just want my question answered.

If you can tell me why RH7 DOES NOT bite, go ahead. Until then I have more than enough brains to realize it does. Keeping with the tradition, though, I'm sure 7.2 will be much better.

[Molecule Man]

I can't speak for RH but in MDK, I have done a clean install without formatting before, and usually it works fine, I do have seperate partions for /var /tmp /home /usr /usr/local / swap so take it for what its worth.

My Notebook has been installed without a format fine too with a / /home /music /boot so...

[jbstew32]

You are right that RH7 is quite buggy, and well, it kinda bites, yes. Actually I installed it to see how it would run, and after some tinkering, I managed to get everything working (even my damn USB mouse which all these distros "support" w/o 2.4.x kernel)

I really don't like RH personally, but I can see how it would be ok in a corporate environment...that is as long as they keep religously putting out security updates.

As for upgrading, everything 'should' work. Just make sure you tell the installer it is an upgrade. The only real troubles that come from upgrading are things like duplicates of progs in your menus and things like that...mostly little annoyances that can be fixed with a little work. Since you seem to be a die hard Red Hat user, I guess there is no point in trying to sway you to use

:cool: Slackware :cool:

Anyway, backing up your /home would be advisable, as it is just configuration files and your productivity/downloaded files, and can be restored later. Back it up, upgrade, if it breaks then just format and install the new version, and copy your saved /home.

As long as the new version doesn't come with software that completely rearranged theire configuration files' syntax, you should be fine.

:cool: Slackware :cool:

[bdg1983]

? RH has a way of 'hacking' perfectly good code to the point where it doesn't work anymore (try glibc on for size). Also, up2date ends up breaking more than it fixes usually. I know redhat well enough to realize that their x.0 versions don't usually cut it. I thought this one would be different..

Redhat is known to be 'cutting edge' when it comes to releasing their distros with all the latest and greatest. The only problem is that not all is thoroughly tested before being released.

Hence the reason I like Caldera. They are well known to being a little behind the rest, but they prefer this to releasing an unstable distro.

In other words, if you want the latest and greatest, then you will just have to put up with some instability.

[ 06 April 2001: Message edited by: mdwatts ]

[X_console]

I would suggest backing up the /home directory as you yourself suggested. I never trust the "upgrade" option of anything. Always backup your important scripts and configuration files and anything else important. If the upgrade is flawless then that's great. But if not, then at least you've got the backups. :)