installation help

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#1

Hello guys!!!

I need your help again.
In my hard disk I have win xp, opensuse 11.1 and ubuntu 10.4. I’d like to replace 11.1 version of opensuse with the last one 11.3 without losing data and setting in other partitions.
this is my hd:

/dev/sda1        ntfs            83.01GiB
/dev/sda2        extended          149.88 GiB
   /dev/sda5     linux-swap        2.44 GiB
   /dev/sda6     ext3                 20 GiB
   /dev/sda7     ext3                 62.23 GiB
   /dev/sda8     ext4                 62.5 GiB
   /dev/sda9     linux-swap        2.7 GiB

I think (but I’m not totally sure) I installed opensuse in dev/sda6 and dev/sda7…what is the right thing to do?? should I have to delete /dev/sda5 /dev/sda6 and /dev/sda7 partitions and then install opensuse 11.3 in the new free space??

thanks.

#2

Hi,

First thing, you have to make sure on wich partition is installed the 11.1. Boot on the 11.1 and in console, do a

df -h

One other thing you should do with a tool like GParted is to get rid of the extra swap partition you have. You don’t need 2 swap partitions. One is enough since ubuntu and openSUSE will use the same. You’ll recover the extra space. :wink:

Once you identified your partitions, format the root partition (/) and keep (don’t format) the /home one if you don’t want to lose your programs configs and other documents.

Don’t erase any partitions before you are sure wich is wich. Do you still want to keep ubuntu? That is weird because you have 2 systems and only 3 ext partitions… You shared one partitions for the /home of ubuntu and openSUSE? Keep in mind that it is not a good thing to use the same /home partition for both systems.

#3

df -h gave this result


Filesystem       Dimens.     Used      Free        %      Mounted on
/dev/sda6         20G           3.4G      16           18      /
udev               1012M        128K      1012M      1       /dev
/dev/sda7         62G           30G       29G         51     /home
/dev/sda1         84G           15G       69G         18     /windows/C
#4

So,

You see from this that the openSUSE is installed on /dev/sda6 and your /home partition is on /dev/sda7. Write these down and fire up the 11.3 installation. At the partitions step, click on edit the partitions setup and select the right partition and set the mount point accordingly. Format the root partition but not the /home one if you want to keep your program configs.

But don’t forget, before doing this, save all your critical data, one never knows. :wink:

#5

Excuse me if I’m so boring. I understand that if I format only /dev/sda6 partition I will no lose anything, like configuration, installed programs and docs (if everything goes right)…is that right??

however, will do the same a security back up.

thanks a lot

#6

Yes formating sda6 will do a fresh install. But going from 11.1 to 11.3 as an upgrade is not really recommended, there have been too many changes.

#7

yeah:)
I hope that everything goes right!!

tanks!
I’m really grateful to you.

#8

Like gogalthorp said, it is better to format the /home partition when passing from 11.1 to 11.3. A lot more work has to be done to configure all your programs though.

Why you ask? because if yiou have a bad config in 11.1, you’ll have it too in 11.3. :slight_smile:

#9

no, i don’t have a bad conf, but 11.1 will not be supported soon…so I though to install 11.3…

#10

That is ok. A lot of good things withe the 11.3 compared to the 11.1. :slight_smile:

#11

just a little question:

the suggested partition is:

Format /dev/sda6
use /dev/sda5 as swap
set mount point of /dev/sda8 to home
set mount point of /dev/sda1 to /windows/C

but I think it should not be correct at all because in /dav/sda8 there is ubuntu…I think I should correct in this way:

Format /dev/sda6
use /dev/sda5 as swap
set mount point of /dev/sda7 to home
set mount point of /dev/sda1 to /windows/C

please tell me if it’s right!

thanks

#12

You are correct in the second scheme. Don’t forget to not format /dev/sda7 if you want to keep your settings.

Now, if you have spare time once in a while, try recovering the space used by the second swap. It is unecessary to have 2.

Have fun! :wink: