What to save before re-installing?

Sideburns · 2012-09-11 09:57:49

I use Xfce and Fedora 16 on both my desktop and my laptop. The laptop fails to boot except with an old kernel from Fedora 14. (I skipped 15 for various reasons.) I just tried running the laptop from a Fedora 17 LiveCD. (Xfce spin, of course.) It booted and ran fine, which tells me that there's something funky going on. Now, I'm planning on backing up anything on the laptop that's needed and doing a complete reformat/reinstall. I'm not simply installing from the LiveCD because I want to personalize things. And there are changes since the last time I installed that make it easier to do it this way and not keep my old /home partition.

What files/folders do I need to back up and restore to save as much of my setup as possible? I'm not worried about keeping something that will mess things up again because I'm past the problem area by the time I'm able to log in.

secipolla · 2012-09-11 10:53:09

Regarding Xfce's settings, ~/.config/xfce4 (delete eventual cruft there that some buggy plugins like xfce4-notes might leave; but most are useful configs).

Of course you might want to backup other stuff not directly related to Xfce's settings under ~/.config or somewhere else in ~ but that cited folder is where you'll find anything worth backing up (like panel and keyboard settings).

If you install from the netinstall.iso you can leave out true cruft like GDM and also use the Xfce 4.10 repo to install it directly. In another post of mine I gave the address for updated F17 ISO images (don't know if they are the ones used at the main download page).
If you can be quite adventurous, I think RC1 for F18 Alpha (64-bit only, I think) are out there (DVD and netinstall.iso only, I suppose, so it won't really make it easier for you). The testing mailing list should have its location.

Last edited by secipolla (2012-09-11 10:53:31)

Sideburns · 2012-09-11 11:59:54

No, I'm using the F17DVD. I know I'll need ~/Pictures (rotating wallpaper) and I'll probably want ~/.mozilla and ~/.thunderbird. I wasn't sure where the rest of the config was. F18 Alpha won't help because I don't have 64bit hardware and I'm never an early adopter, preferring to let somebody else find out what's not ready for prime time. (Note that I'm still using F16, not 17.)

angstrom · 2012-09-11 12:39:24

Normally, user's settings are saved in ~/.* (.bashrc, .config, .mozilla, .local, ....)
Usually, system config (which required root to edit/modify) are in /etc
So I would advice to backup those folders and files.

From my experience, (upgrading opensuse from 11.2 to 11.2, 11.3, 11.4 and 12.1) , upgrades while preserving ~/.* is safe. In my case, I keep my whole home folder.

Preserving /etc configurations is more risky and tricky. What you can do is install your new system and try to compare the new /etc and your old one, then manually update your configurations (like ssh, sudoer, laptop-mode, etc ...).

Sideburns · 2012-09-11 12:53:18

Normally, I'd agree with you. However, Fedora has gone from starting UserIDs at 500 to starting them at 1000 and it might be more of a PITA switching everything over than it's worth. I haven't decided yet, but I did want to know what really needed to be saved.

secipolla · 2012-09-11 13:21:30

Have you tried troubleshooting to find out why it won't boot? It seems that pre-upgrade from F16 to F17 works fine (the issues are well documented already).
Anyway, even if you don't keep your home folder, just back it up and then copy whatever you need. While copying you can figure what's useful and what's not.
If you install lightdm/Xfce 4.10 you'll be already following F18 lines but otherwise if you're fine with GDM/Xfce 4.8 then it doesn't matter.

vasa1 · 2012-09-11 17:17:20

Sideburns wrote:

No, I'm using the F17DVD. I know I'll need ~/Pictures (rotating wallpaper) and I'll probably want ~/.mozilla and ~/.thunderbird. I wasn't sure where the rest of the config was. F18 Alpha won't help because I don't have 64bit hardware and I'm never an early adopter, preferring to let somebody else find out what's not ready for prime time. (Note that I'm still using F16, not 17.)

Very minor point but you could empty the cache of Firefox before copying over ~/.mozilla.

Sideburns · 2012-09-11 18:07:06

Have I tried troubleshooting? Yes, and there's an open bugzilla on it.

ozjd · 2012-09-12 01:41:12

If you use LibreOffice it moved its config from ~/.libreoffice up to F16 to ~/.config/libreoffice in F17 or actually with LO 3.5 I think. I save libreoffice/3/user/wordbook/standard.dic if nothing else.

If you have a custom ~/.gtkrc-2.0 save that too.

Last edited by ozjd (2012-09-12 01:43:01)

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#1 2012-09-11 09:57:49

What to save before re-installing?

#2 2012-09-11 10:53:09

Re: What to save before re-installing?

#3 2012-09-11 11:59:54

Re: What to save before re-installing?

#4 2012-09-11 12:39:24

Re: What to save before re-installing?

#5 2012-09-11 12:53:18

Re: What to save before re-installing?

#6 2012-09-11 13:21:30

Re: What to save before re-installing?

#7 2012-09-11 17:17:20

Re: What to save before re-installing?

#8 2012-09-11 18:07:06

Re: What to save before re-installing?

#9 2012-09-12 01:41:12

Re: What to save before re-installing?

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