How do I migrate 8.04 to a fresh install of 9.04?

[duncanbourne]

Hi,

I have a dell laptop running 8.04, and I'd like to do a complete fresh install with 9.04, rather than upgrading.

How do I move all the user files across to the new installation? If I back up the entire home directory, will I then have problems with file permissions after copying them to the new install?

Will copying the home directory bring across everything, or do I need other files too?

Duncan

[Bios Element]

Do yourself a favor. Get a HD big enough to copy everything in the home directory over and then install 9.04. Now DO NOT just dump everything in. GO through and get only what you need. A re-install is a great time to get rid of excess junk and un-needed config files.

[duncanbourne]

That sounds like a good plan. Will I have any problems with permission though? And are there any files outside of Home that should be saved?

Thanks

Duncan

[73ckn797]

I have never had a problem moving around my document directory or contents.

I will second the previous recommendation from bios-element about getting only what you need. All of your documents can be moved around.

[rickbeton]

When I install Ubuntu, I ALWAYS create at least three partitions: /, /home and swap. As Bios Element said, it's kinda good to replace your OS every six months/year with the new version and so purge all the unwanted cr*p accumulated by tinkering. If you don't tinker, you probably won't have this issue.

Either way, it's still jolly useful to have a /home partition - I don't understand why the guided partitioning doesn't do this by default.

To answer your question about permissions, in Unix/Linux they are based on the UID and GID of each user. Each file is tagged with a particular UID and GID of ownership. Changing these is not hard, e.g.


sudo chown -R rick.mygroup /home/rick

This fixes up files if your backup/restore has left them incorrect.

So you have two choices: either don't worry about ownership initially and fix it as above, or else make your new users match your old users' UIDs and GIDs before you restore /home. The 'id' command is useful to find these out - or simply inspect '/etc/passwd'.

Another tip: before upgrading, back up /etc so that you can refer to it later if you have forgotten your network settings etc. But don't try restoring /etc over the new installation.

Rick :)

[Bios Element]

That sounds like a good plan. Will I have any problems with permission though? And are there any files outside of Home that should be saved?

Thanks

Duncan

If you have any permission problems just type gksudo nautilus into console and change the owner to your username. Like I said, It's a good idea just to backup everything if your not sure. Myself, I save things from the /opt and /home folder since I run a dev server.