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    #1

    Need advice on Gutsy reinstall

    I was running Feisty in a dual boot win2000 configuration until it became unusable. Fortunately I was able to boot into failsafe where I am operating now. I have copied /home to another partition mounted as /mnt/Data3 and I copied /etc and /root to /mnt/Data2. I am hoping I will be able to download the iso for Gutsy and burn it although k3b was and still is causing me troubles (dvd drive not opening)-if I can't do it on failsafe I hope I can use win2000. I also have the installed-software.txt someone recommended to use to reinstall software,
    Could someone give me a detailed description (made for a noob) of how to do the reinstall. Thanks.
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    #2
    Re: Need advice on Gutsy reinstall

    Hmm, admittedly I'm not enough of an expert on reinstalling to be able to give n00b advice for it (if that makes sense), but I guess my question is, have you tried updating to Gutsy from within your current install? If Adept isn't working, I'd suggest just staying in the failsafe commandline and doing something https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GutsyUpgrades#head-f2435a45758bb5836f8e5b87e90045463f8c6ec7"]like this[/URL] and seeing if the vast replacements that Gutsy makes do away with your problems. Then again, I have no idea what your problems are, but at least in my own experience it's been easier just to upgrade than to reinstall In fact, the other day my friend's old Dell laptop had a hardware hiccup and then she couldn't log in to KDE or even use any KDE apps in other desktop environments, but using the PPAs and upgrading to 3.5.9 made everything magically work again!

    (Also, it might seem like weird advice, but for newbies with problems I'd even recommend installing fluxbox, just because it's nice to have a second graphical environment to fall back on in time of need, and fluxbox is so light on resources that one might as well have it installed.)

    Sorry I can't help ya more directly, last time I did an actual reinstall over an existing install was back in 5.10 Preview, heh, kindof the dark ages of Kubuntu, and it was all text-mode installs back then.
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      #3
      Re: Need advice on Gutsy reinstall

      After reading a lot on upgrade vs reinstall, I have decided on reinstall, especially since Feisty seems to be buggered. I should have added that I will want /home on a separate partition and am not sure how to achieve this on reinstall, presumably a custom install.
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        #4
        Re: Need advice on Gutsy reinstall

        Originally posted by ahurd
        I was running Feisty in a dual boot win2000 configuration until it became unusable. Fortunately I was able to boot into failsafe where I am operating now. I have copied /home to another partition mounted as /mnt/Data3 and I copied /etc and /root to /mnt/Data2. I am hoping I will be able to download the iso for Gutsy and burn it although k3b was and still is causing me troubles (dvd drive not opening)-if I can't do it on failsafe I hope I can use win2000. I also have the installed-software.txt someone recommended to use to reinstall software,
        Could someone give me a detailed description (made for a noob) of how to do the reinstall. Thanks.
        It sounds like you have been booting into failsafe/recovery mode, and then running the X server (and apps like K3b) as root. Last I heard, that is not a recommended use of the recovery mode -- I forget what all can go wrong, but this might be a causal factor for the Feisty corruption. :P

        You should only use recovery mode for, errrrr .... recovery, i.e. reinstalling a broken video driver, re-configuring your broken vmware after a kernel upgrade, using nano to edit system files, and things like that, which can only be done in Super User mode. It's not for routine file management and running GUI apps.
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          #5
          Re: Need advice on Gutsy reinstall

          I am writing this in win2000. Perhaps what you say explains problems I am now having. I thought in failsafe I had successfully backed up /home, /root and /etc to separate partitions. Then firefox got a segmentation fault and refused to load. I did a cold reboot and discovered that what I had thought I had saved was not in the partitions, although they are created and mounted. Do you have any thoughts on how I might save /home, etc (presumably not by using failsafe. It is at least nice to have dual boot to win2000 in times like these. I have System Rescue, Helix, and could probably download other live disks.
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            #6
            Re: Need advice on Gutsy reinstall

            Knoppix can be used.
            or, your Live Kubuntu CD can be used.

            To mount, then to copy your stuff off (maybe to a thumb drive).

            Or, use GParted to make a new partition (if necessary), then one of those rescue Live CDs to copy (or use Helix to dcfldd) home to that partition.
            An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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              #7
              Re: Need advice on Gutsy reinstall

              Many thanks, all. Mike, I take it that in Knoppix or Helix I will be able to access The partitions on the HD.
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                #8
                Re: Need advice on Gutsy reinstall

                "I take it that in Knoppix or Helix I will be able to access The partitions on the HD."

                yep. In fact, Knoppix is famous for that. Might be a good idea to play with it and get familiar with it. The Knoppix FAQ is good, too (at the site). I'm not very well versed in it yet, but have used it to mount/access other hard drives/partitions to mess around/rescue/testdisk/photorec. Knoppix can be quirky, but can be learned. For example, partitions are mounted read only (RO); but all you do is right-click and change that. Also, right-click on the Desktop and select Mounting Manager and it's all there. All your partitions are shown on the Knoppix Desktop as icons.

                Same for Live Kubuntu CD, and you may have to mess a bit with mounting (using Disk & Filesystems). Some folks use Puppy Live CD for such work. But Knoppix (or Kubuntu Live) would be probably the best equipped to just go at it.
                An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                  #9
                  Re: Need advice on Gutsy reinstall

                  I have hopefully successfully backed up /home from compromised feisty installation and am back to needing help on Gutsy install. My partitions are as follows: /sda1 win2000
                  /sda2 NTFS data
                  /sda3 corrupted Feisty install
                  /sda4 extended
                  /sda5 swap
                  /sda6 ext3 data
                  /sda7 ext3 containing /root and/etc backups
                  /sda8 ext3 containing /home backup
                  I am unhappy that I put /home in /sda8 rather than /sda6 but this could possibly be changed later. Could anyone give suggestions on Gutsy install, eventually giving me separate /home, and dealing with grub issues, editing of fstab, etc. Thanks.
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