I just ordered a new machine, which should be arriving in the next week or so. My question is from my current machine (openSuSE 11.0) what should I back up and copy to my new machine?
I figure the fstab, .profile for sure… but what about my home directory? Should I back up the entire thing? If I do and then copy it into my new home directory running 11.2, will all the applications still work with my previous settings?
Anything else I need?
All of /home and any mysql databases and config files in / that you have tweaked from the standard openSUSE settings.
openSUSE will create defaults for everything and so, in most cases, you need to be clear why you want to change the defaults.
openSUSE will also create a user in /home and a number of folders; so simply copying /home will overwrite the new folders which may upset the installation. When copying /home to a new machine, only copy those hidden files which you need and for which openSUSE has not already created satisfactory defaults.
Normally applications will be able to use your previous settings but, if you are using KDE, there have been significant changes since 11.0 which may need to handled carefully; for example, don’t copy over Kmail folders; use the Kmail import facility to add them and then move specific emails into the default folders if you want
In my case, I always take a copy of /etc … It has things like my custom printer/scanner settings there, which can be useful. I also keep my entire /home. And after backing up my /home, I then spend a LOT of time ensuring the backup is good. I once lost all my emails (a long time ago) because my backup of /home was done carelessly, and my emails not saved.
Where are MySQL databases kept?
A strange place: /var/lib/mysql.
You can tell it to have it elsewhere, which will create symbolic links in /var/lib/mysql/<database>/ and will put the real data elsewhere, but you still need things being correct in /var/lib/mysql.
Also /srv if you run any websites or ftp sites.
This is bit of a mess. Do not mix up files like /etc/fstab, which are system files with things like .profile, which is in the realm of the user (and in his home directory.
Let the install do things like /etc/fstab. And you can copy your home directory from your old /home (in practise all of your /home as stated above).
Ninja1980 wrote:
> I just ordered a new machine
ohhhhh…is it preloaded with Linux?
–
palladium
It’s strange… other distros (Ubuntu and Fedora) place them under (I think) /var/www/
Why /var? I have no idea. Under /srv makes much more sense.
Historical. /srv is the LSB location but other distros didn’t want to break anything already set up.
Sorry, “LSB”?
Linux Standard Base
Ok, I’ll ask. Wazzat?
As Robby once said: DANGER Will Smith! To amplify on what hcw said, DON’T copy /etc/fstab to your new computer. It contains information on partitions that are to be mounted. Each partition listed is “by-id” where “id” is the device identifier for the particular drive it’s installed on. Hence if copied to a new computer, it will still point to the old drive and you will only be able to boot into rescue mode.
I did that once and learned the hard way.
I should clarify about what I do with /etc.
I make a copy of it and I keep it on an external back up drive, but I do NOT copy it to my new PC. Rather I keep it as a reference guide.
No, it comes with Windows Vista 64-Bit… That will be removed quite quickly.
Well my old computer is perfectly fine, it is just getting a little long in the tooth and it was time for a new one. So all my old files will be accessible still when I have my new machine. I can take my time moving them over.
> No, it comes with Windows Vista 64-Bit… That will be removed quite
> quickly.
oh! is the hardware all usable with non-Redmond software?
sometimes, it is difficult (but not a lot worse than standing on your
head while gargling peanut butter) to get hardware specificially
designed to mesh with Redmond’s proprietary, closed source drivers to
do all that is expected…
hopefully yours will do enough to make you happy…
–
palladium
I know that feeling. The problem is, our old computers just won’t die! My wife and I only really “need” one desktop computer each, and one family laptop (for a total of 3 computers). Instead we have 6 computers! (2 laptops, and 4 desktops). The reason? The old computers just won’t die (and they run well under Linux as legacy hardware) !
For desktops, we have:
My newest computer: 64-bit Intel Core i7 920 w/6GB RAM (Asus P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard) w/ PCI-e nVidia GeForce GTX260 graphics running openSUSE-11.2 w/KDE-4.3.5 [1 year old]
My wife’s computer: 32-bit AMD Sempon-2600 w/1GB RAM (Epox EP-8K7A motherboard) w/AGP ATI RV280 (Radeon-9200Pro) graphics running winXP and openSUSE-11.2 w/KDE-4.3.5 [age-4+ years]
Now my wife is making noises that her computer is too slow and that maybe she needs a newer computer. But then we can not figure out what to do with her 32-bit AMD Sempron-2600 if we buy a new PC, because we also have:
My old PC (which I use as a backup) - a 32-bit AMD Athlon-2800 w/2GB RAM (Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard) w/ PCI nVidia GeForce 8400GS graphics running openSUSE-11.2 with KDE-4.3.5 [age-5+ years]
My wife’s old computer (now my sandbox PC for testing LXDE desktop) 32-bit AMD Athlon-1100 w/1GB RAM (MSI KT3 Ultra motherboard) w/AGP nVidia GeForce FX5200 graphics running openSUSE-11.2 with KDE-4.3.5 and openSUSE-11.3 Milestone release with LXDE [age 9+ years]
This means I have 3xPCs under my desk connected via a hardware KVM, … but if I put a 4th under my desk I won’t have any leg room 
Then there are our 2 laptops:
our main laptop: a 64-bit Dell Studio 1537, Intel P8400 w/4GB RAM, w/ATI Radeon 3450HD graphics running openSUSE-11.2 with KDE-4.3.5 [age-1+ years]
and our old laptop still runs:
32-bit Fujitsu-Simens Amilo 7400M w/1.256 GB RAM w/Intel 1.5 celeron, and Intel i855 graphics running openSUSE-11.1 with KDE-4.3.5 (note openSUSE-11.1 as 11.2’s 2.6.31 kernel does not work well with the specific Intel graphics) [age-5+ years]
Its pretty hard for us to justify more than 6 PCs !! and neither of us like throwing out perfectly good working hardware. We gave 2 old x 250GB external hard drives to a friend, give our old scanner to a friend, and gave a 17" TFT flat screen monitor to a friend. But each time we raise the possibility of giving them one of our old PCs, they just laugh and note they can buy much better for $100 or less. 