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Thread: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

  1. #1
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    Question Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    I'm going to be getting some new PC parts in a couple of days and I need to know if I am going to need to reinstall Ubuntu. I am currently running 12.04 Precise Pangolin Gnome on an older 64-bit OS with a Nvidia graphics card. It runs fine, except that it crashes when I run certain applications, because my RAM is only 995.2MiB and the processor is a AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+.

    I'll be keeping my 1tb hard drive because it is brand new, as well as my DVD drive, fans, and Power Supply.

    My new PC will have a GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 AM3+ motherboard, a AMD FX-6300 FX-Series Six Core processor, a EVGA GeForce GTX650Ti graphics card, and 16gb of RAM(two 8gb sticks).

    When I power it up with my hard drive, will Ubuntu just simply ask to download new drivers and everything, or should I reinstall?

    As far as my hard drive goes, I currently have two partitions that are each about 500gb and Ubuntu+everything is on one of the partitions(the second one). I'd like to make one smaller partition for Ubuntu and programs, and the other(larger) partition for storage of data(pictures, music, movies, books). What are good partition sizes for each partition, and how can I set it up so that my files in my Home Folder(Pictures, Documents, Music, Videos) will link to the data that's stored on the larger partition?

  2. #2
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    Kubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    In most cases you don't even notice hardware upgrades. The only time where you should reinstall is when going from 32 to 64-bits, but it's not your case. Give it a shot: backup your system and user directories, put your old drive in the new setup, make sure the BIOS sees it properly and boot: Linux will use whatever new drivers it needs. Afterward do a "aptitude update; aptitude full-upgrade". I have systems that have gone through 4 major upgrades and still the same install. One more reason not to stick with Windows...

  3. #3
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    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    Ubuntu will not just do anything. Linux will try to run on the hardware and will make quiet a good job of it and Ubuntu will load and that is when you will notice that the video driver that worked on your old video card will not be able to run the new video card. In my opinion, that is.

    I suggest that you activate the Nouveau open source driver. And then when you get to a desktop you can activate a proprietary driver that is applicable to the new video adapter. For the first boot, you could even use Recovery mode>Resume. That will load Ubuntu without activating a video driver. It will use a standard (basic) video mode compatible with the xserver. At least it will get you to a working desktop where you can then use Additional Drivers.

    Do not forget, that one of the reasons we have newer versions of Ubuntu and that LTS have four point releases in 2 years is to bring in the latest Linux firmware to work the new hardware. The Linux kernel in 12.04 may work fine on this newer hardware but the Linux kernel in 12.04.2 may work better. There is a reason why the kernel has gone from 3.2.0 to 3.5.0. Incidently Ubuntu 13.04 has kernel 3.8.0 and Saucy Salamander (13.10) has 3.10.0 and will get 3.11.0

    Improvements have also been made to video drivers, both proprietary and open source.

    Regards
    Last edited by grahammechanical; July 8th, 2013 at 10:07 AM.
    It is a machine. It is more stupid than we are. It will not stop us from doing stupid things.
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  4. #4
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    Re: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    if you have proprietary drivers remove them first and run with opensource.

    then linux will check hardware on boot and load opensource drivers. then you install new proprietary drivers and that's it.
    Read the easy to understand, lots of pics Ubuntu manual.
    Do i need antivirus/firewall in linux?
    Full disk backup (newer kernel -> suitable for newer PC): Clonezilla
    User friendly full disk backup: Rescuezilla

  5. #5
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    Xubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr

    Re: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    ensure your old PSU has the correct CPU power connectors for your new CPU and Motherboard, you'll most likely find it may not have the 6 or 8 PIN connector your new CPU requires. Also, does your current PSU have the correct GPU power connector for the 650ti?

    Otherwise, you should be golden to just switch out everything and boot up the existing hard drive BUT as others said you should remove your current nvidia driver with either nouvue or vesa because with the 650 I am sure you can use the latest Nvidia stable driver to get the most out of the card I would go with what nvidia provides on their website or use x-swat ppa.

    If you start playing around with partitions (shrinking where ubuntu lives) then I would most certainly make a backup image just in case something goes wrong.

  6. #6
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    Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish

    Re: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    Quote Originally Posted by grahammechanical View Post
    ...one of the reasons we have newer versions of Ubuntu and that LTS have four point releases in 2 years is to bring in the latest Linux firmware to work the new hardware. The Linux kernel in 12.04 may work fine on this newer hardware but the Linux kernel in 12.04.2 may work better. There is a reason why the kernel has gone from 3.2.0 to 3.5.0. Incidently Ubuntu 13.04 has kernel 3.8.0 and Saucy Salamander (13.10) has 3.10.0 and will get 3.11.0
    Good information

    And I would offer that it might be simplier to back up your data, and do a fresh install with your new hardware.

  7. #7
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    Re: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    Be aware that the new motherboard may have uefi and you may need to change settings to legacy support (bios mode)
    You may want to consider reinstalling to take advantage of the advancements of uefi, GPT partitioning.
    But that's your call.
    Castles Made of Sand,
    Fall in the Sea,
    Eventually!

  8. #8
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    Jun 2013
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    Re: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    What are good partition sizes for a 1tb hard drive?

    Maybe 100gb for the OS and programs, and then 900gb for storage...? Is a SWAP even needed?

    Also, would it be easy to link the folders in my "Home Folder" directly to the folders on the larger-storage partition?

  9. #9
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    Re: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    i wouldn't ever install an OS on that large of a drive but if it's all you have then I would probably allocate 50gb for OS, 100gb of /home and the rest for storage. and yes, in linux you can create symlinks in your home directory that point to your storage partition where ever you choose to mount it.

  10. #10
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    Re: Rebuilding my PC - Will I need to reinstall Ubuntu? + parition question

    What's the difference between /home and the OS?

    I plan on using this PC for Android App development and plan on putting a bunch large programs on it.

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