When you say clean install, does that mean that the disk is repartitioned and reformatted? I don’t have a huge amount of stuff that I want to keep from my 10.3 system, but it would be nice if I could keep it somewhere on the disk during the install. Is that possible?
I am guessing that moving from 10.3 to 11.2 via an “upgrade” is either not possible or not recommended, true?
Thanks
I don’t think a “clean” install requires you to repartition, rather it refers to starting all your settings from scratch (most easily done by reformatting) to avoid conflicts and errors. There are many changes in various config files over the last year so you don’t want to hang onto outdated settings.
It can be done this way: Since I always keep my home partition separate from my root install, copy any or all config files that you’ve edited to a home subdirectory then do the new install. Once compete and the new install is up and running, go back and review your old files and make what changes you want to keep to the new system and delete the older files as you review them.
The BEST way to do this is to have more than on install available at all times. In otherwords: two separate root install partitions.
For example:
Two partitions same size: sda5 and sda6, each 12gb. On a daily basis you are using sda5 as your main root install. You keep a backup of this install on sda6 that you update weekly or monthly in case something borks your primary install.
You want to do a clean install of a new distro (or a clean re-install) so you install it to sda6. This leaves your old install totally intact and available as long as you want.
You play with, tweak, setup, optimize your new install until it’s just right. Then you wipe out your old install on sda5 and start backing up your new one to there. Then when you want to do it all again you just reverse the process.
Interesting. So I assume that the partition manager will simply let me pick which of the root install partitions to boot from and use.
I like it. I will give that a try.
Thanks
You usually have to select “Advanced” during the partitioning portion of the install process to setup your own preferred install locations.
I always install /home and /tmp on separate partitions for safety reasons and I put /boot on it own partiton for GRUB purposes.
I have enough hard drive space to have four separate linux installs simultaneously, so this is easy for me.
I have a lot of room as well so this approach should work well. I just finished getting the 11.2 image. I will try it tonight.
Thanks
By a ‘clean install’ I mean simply installing over / and leaving /swap and /home untouched.
That requires you to backup any changes to /etc files and any mysql databases in order to restore them after the installation.