reinstall ubuntu 8.10

after some issues with Ubuntu9.04, i finally did a complete reinstall. nice and fresh and vanilla version of Ubuntu8.10. in my mind the latest stable release. they need to work on 9.04 some more before calling it a stable release like they did.

some steps for anyone that wants to know how to do a reinstall of linux without losing your data.

  1. make sure you system is using multiple partitions on the tree
    i never suggest doing a single partition install of any operating system including linux.
    i have 11 partitions for my single harddrive to maintain mount point sanitation.
  2. backup all data in "/home", "/root" and any other custom mount points you may have created.
    if you have a webserver like apache installed you will want to backup "/var/www" aswell.
    you may also want to make a backup of "/usr/local/src" if you have downloaded and built any program sources.
  3. backup services/servers datas. if you use mysql do a dump of you databases.
  4. BACKUP "/etc/"
    you may need some old configuration files, especially if you have altered any of them yourself in the past
  5. make sure you have copies of any modules you will need.
  6. double check "/usr/share/" to see if you have any plugins, extensions, themes, icons, fonts that you need to have for applications you will be reinstalling.
  7. *record your partition schema on paper so you can reference it later*
  8. after backing up everything
    you may start the install
  9. download, if you haven't, the ubuntu8.10 livecd Desktop edition.
  10. when finished burn this image to disc or create a usb autoboot drive
  11. reboot your computer and set to boot from cd or usb
  12. go through the whole setup and when asked for the partitions delete everything but your "/home" partition and the partition you backup your data too.
  13. install will format drives and start installation.
  14. after installation reboot and you should be set
  15. copy data back into the folders you want
  16. reisntall your server softwares
  17. import your mysql backup

for the most part when using linux if you remember to segregate your data into different partitions you will be much safer and faster. smaller drives are easier to clean and you can unmount a partition and not worry about damaging any of the data. 

my schema
/dev/sda1   /boot
/dev/sda2   swap
/dev/sda3   /
/dev/sda5   /usr
/dev/sda7   /tmp
/dev/sda8   /home
/dev/sda9   /data
/dev/sda10  /var
/dev/sda11  /extra

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Comments (0) October 04, 2009 8:34 pm