OT: Tips for clean installs

[Mark Halegua]

On Monday 30 March 2009 12:42:38 pm Nigel Ridley wrote:
> I just did a clean install of Jaunty Beta (9.04).
> In the process I managed to do a few things that I would have done
> differently had I thought about it more.
>
> So here are some tips to ease your fresh install:
>
> 1. When making backups to CD/DVD choose the option to save as a 'backup' -
> it preserves your file permissions (you will need them after the install).
>
> 2. After burning your backup CD/DVD's -- check them! Although I chose the
> 'copy hidden files' option, K3b didn't actually include them. I had to add
> them by dragging and dropping from Konqueror.
>
> 3. If you did burn your backup CD/DVD's without using the 'backup' option
> and you now find that all your files are read only -- just do a:
> 'find [YOURDIR] -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;' (without the quotes and
> replacing [YOURDIR] with the directory that you want to change the
> permissions on). This will recursively change the permissions on all files
> below the parent directory as rw r r (which is to give the owner read/write
> permissions and everybody else just read permissions).
>
> 4. Make sure that you have enabled all the necessary apt sources
> (repositories) before giving apt a list of all the apps that you had
> installed previously ('dpkg --get-selections >
> list-of-installed-packages').
>
> 5. Take some time to get used to KDE 4.2 if you are moving from 3.x as I
> did. It isn't so bad - just needs some time to adjust to new ways of doing
> things.....
>
> 6. Don't rush it! I spent several hours just preparing for the backup --
> loads of old files to clear out, old emails (especially those space hoggers
> with attachments); and watch out for the .thumbnails and the .srtigi dirs
> -- they can be huge!
>
> 7. You are also going to need a few hours of quiet (no wife or kids - they
> always seem to bother you just when you need to do something really really
> important) to set up your new system to your liking.
>
> Have fun....
>
> Blessings,
>
> Nigel
>
> P.S. I love my wife and [5] children :-)

One thing I've done for all my systems for the last several years is have the 
home directory on a separate partition.  In this way, except for true backup 
purposes, I don't have to recreate the /home/user files during a new 
installation.

It saves a lot of time during the installation of a new distro or version.

And, every once in a while, I perform backups to DVD, just to be on the safe 
side.  After doing some housecleaning.  :)

Mark