Clean Install But Keep Existing Settings

I haven't done a clean install for awhile but think maybe for 11.0 (possibly the beta) and would like to keep my existing settings (firewall ports, groups, users, sensors).

Would just saving and then using the existing /etc and /var directories work or would there be complications?

thanks,

I don't think it will be that simple, BTW isn't it more good practice to create another partition for installing the beta version rather than replace our stable system with it? Or you could wait for the final release in which less than month? Just a suggestion.

I don't think it will be that simple, BTW isn't it more good practice to create another partition for installing the beta version rather than replace our stable system with it? Or you could wait for the final release in which less than month? Just a suggestion.
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FYI - I am planning on loading the beta on a free partition, just figured I'd do a little testing and then when the gm (gold master) is released use that as my primary.

I wouldn't suggest it but I suppose it could be done. Perhaps run a diff to see what changes, if purely experimental maybe even rsync.

It will come down to whether something that uses var or etc has changed the way it does things. Though var seems a funny directory you could end up saving stuff that will be depending on other parts of the directory tree(etc less so seems more configuration files).

If it was me I first would make sure you have as near as possible the same applications installed, perhaps using rpm -qi and seeing differences.

Don't think any one can say for sure whether it would have any complications, guess you would be telling us.

Personally I think if you just saved a few from /etc not the whole directory would be the easiest.

Another way of asking the question might be "for those who do a clean install instead of an upgrade what do you do to accomplish this without having to reconfigure settings like groups, users, firewall, sensors, samba, etc ...." or do you just reconfigure from scratch?

Also, other that cleaning out various directories what advantages are there in doing a clean install?

I did a clean install back in 10.0 and redid everything from scratch but it just seemes that if you had a lot of users and services installed there should be a quick way of accomplishing this.

@FeatherMonkey - there are a couple of /var directories that seemed imp. like mail and yp (that I don't use) and a few of /var/lib/ like smart (where I'd need to update the channels but the channels would be there)

Once you've worked out what guess it is just a question of keeping an eye out on change logs. i.e Once you've worked out what you want, a bash script or 2 should manage it.

Personally I use a rolling distro a lot of the time so don't encounter this but it has limits in other areas.

You do have the upgrade choice at install, now it should work. I do know some have no hassle but to me if it ends up having problems looking for assistance maybe difficult.

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Personally I use a rolling distro a lot of the time so don't encounter this but it has limits in other areas.

You do have the upgrade choice at install, now it should work. I do know some have no hassle but to me if it ends up having problems looking for assistance maybe difficult.
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"rolling distro" is ????

In the past I've always done, and had good experience, with upgrades but thought it might be a good time to clean things out

For what it's worth I made a copy of my root partition and then did an upgrade to 11.0beta 3. I couldn't come up with a good reason to do a clean install other then to reclaim some dasd and change to ext3 from reiser. The upgrade just seemed less a hassel.

The upgrade went reasonably well, had a few problems that were resolved and a couple to either work on or wait for the final.

FYI - I am planning on loading the beta on a free partition, just figured I'd do a little testing and then when the gm (gold master) is released use that as my primary.
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Oh sorry, misunderstood your doing.