From Suse 10 X64bits To Opensuse 10.2 X32bits

Hi there;

I'm almost tired of dependencies problems with Suse 10 x64 in my box (an amd 64) , so I'm thinking to move it to x32 bits instead, but I do have a lot of questions.

First the system:
In my box there are two users, with /home/user in the same partition than /. (BIG MISTAKE!!! i now)
There are two hard disk, 1 ata 40G (dual boot win xp and Suse), and 1 SATA 200G for backups and other files, and 1 additional 500G external HD.

Noe the questions:
1) How can I keep the /home/users untouched?
2) Should I move all the /home/users to a safe place during the change?
2a) in this case, how can I keep the privileges of each user on their files? (I did it before as root, and I got a lot of problem with the ownership of the files later).
3) Files created using x64 bit program can be open under the same x32 bit program?
4) What else do I have to take into account before the moving?, besides of hardware that is almost 3 years old, so not big problem with newest linux.
5) Any especial consideration for wireless connection? I'm not able to use my D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G510 under linux, but now I really need it working. (Niswrapper!!)

Thank for all the help anyone here can give me.

Itux

Hi there;

I'm almost tired of dependencies problems with Suse 10 x64 in my box (an amd 64) , so I'm thinking to move it to x32 bits instead, but I do have a lot of questions.

First the system:
In my box there are two users, with /home/user in the same partition than /. (BIG MISTAKE!!! i now)
There are two hard disk, 1 ata 40G (dual boot win xp and Suse), and 1 SATA 200G for backups and other files, and 1 additional 500G external HD.

Noe the questions:
1) How can I keep the /home/users untouched?
2) Should I move all the /home/users to a safe place during the change?
2a) in this case, how can I keep the privileges of each user on their files? (I did it before as root, and I got a lot of problem with the ownership of the files later).
3) Files created using x64 bit program can be open under the same x32 bit program?
4) What else do I have to take into account before the moving?, besides of hardware that is almost 3 years old, so not big problem with newest linux.
5) Any especial consideration for wireless connection? I'm not able to use my D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G510 under linux, but now I really need it working. (Niswrapper!!)

Thank for all the help anyone here can give me.

Itux
[/b]

1. make a backup directory on one of you drives and in that a directory for each user. Then copy each users files to the respective directory.
2. see 1
2 a. Make sure the users have read/write access to th backup directory
3. this shouldn't be a problem.
4. If you have anything under root eg html files in htdocs back them up as well
5. Not sure here but you can read more here and here

Good luck and make sure you create a /home partition

/Geoff

with /home/user in the same partition than /. (BIG MISTAKE!!! i now)
[/b]

Not so dramatic. ... No reason for despair.

1) How can I keep the /home/users untouched?
2) Should I move all the /home/users to a safe place during the change?
[/b]

First of all, before you do anything, make a backup of your files, esp. the /home directory.

Then you have two options:

1. (what I would do) just do an upgrade of your existing system. Start the installation and when you have to choose, choose upgrade of an existing system, set your system to 32 bit and install. Should work.

2. move your /home directory to a new partition and do a fresh install. For that you make a fresh partition big enough to hold your /home directory. If you don't know, how bit it is: df -h /home
Then you boot with the installation disk and when it comes to choose, don't choose installation but boot the rescue system. Then mount the partition of your installed system, say to /mnt (e.g. mount /dev/hda2 /mnt) and your new partition to /mnt2 (mount /dev/hda3 /mnt2). Then you copy your whole /home directory to the new partition: cp -a /mnt/home /mnt2
After copying, check if all files are copied: ls -R /mnt2
If everything was copied, you can start the installation, wipe /dev/hda2 and mount /dev/hda3 to your new /home.
/dev/hda2 and /dev/hda3 are only examples. Check, which names apply to your system