Few questions on backups.

[cyan]

Howdy. Little confused on exactly what to back up. I mean, stuff that I download myself is easy, just backup the tar.gz file. My question is with the up2date/mandrake update/yast update/apt-get upgrade type downloads. When you dl those, do they keep the actual .rpm/.deb on the system in a certain place after the install, or are the packages wiped clean? (slloooww dial up, just trying to save some time) Any help/links appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[MBMarduk]

No idea here, sorry!
If your distro has a manual it should say something about it.

Although...if you want to be able to update the DISTRO ITSELF I wouldn't recommend it EVEN with a T1/T3 plugged to your box. Why?
(It's not about d/l-speed!!!)

Most .rpm-based distro's will make a dependancy-mess out of it. According to "Linux Journal": "they're just not made for this..." They had a P3 working for nearly 3 days to update/upgrade the box.

Dunno about .debs.

I'd simply keep upgrading single packages you NEED/USE

[bdg1983]

Have you tried to search your filesystem to see if the rpm/deb packages are still there after the d/l and update are complete?