Fresh Install - Preferences for managing data?

[dcwood]

At some point "Upgrade" will not likely be the way I would go. I may find it's time to do a fresh install. Having said that though I have a bunch of stuff installed for software development, a few virtual machines for XP, CentOS, Kubuntu ... A fresh install would appear to be a bit of an upcoming issue for me.

How do some of you prepare for a fresh install?

...Dale

[yeats]

At the very least, I would back up my /home directory, and I would probably also back up /etc to preserve some of my configuration preferences. Anything you've tweaked to make it work the way you want to, I think you would want to back up. Then go for it.

[JK3mp]

Yeah i know your position. Im just backing up as much as i can once i switch entirely to it. Right now im just making a test partition for it and working things out till its all good for me. Then just backin up files and freeing up all space and new FRESH install :-)

[adamitj]

Well... I reinstall Ubuntu at least twice a year since 2006. In the past I used linux just for fun, or for testing. Nowadays I banned Windows and have only Ubuntu installed.

These experiences made me put in my home folder everything I would transfer to another machine or to the same after a new fresh install. So I create a backup of /home into a home.tar.bz2 and retrieve all files after.

However, when dealing with some packages is a pretty damn thing. Until now I don't find a good way to transfer their configuration files. What I do is to maintain a list of important installed software in a openoffice calc file. I also created a "backup script", from where I run once and installs all software needed when I am working in a fresh installed version.

My way is the hard way. But I wonder how others are dealing with this.

[dcwood]

Thanks for the ideas - I suspect we may see some additional tips coming in.

...Dale

[frazerr]

I just reinstalled and as I am installing my old packages I am putting every command in to a script for next time

I hope to keep this habit up - so that next time I install I wont need to try to remember all the things I have installed