jolindbe
June 10th, 2010, 08:04 AM
Hi!
I have been running Intrepid for a year and a half, and it is mostly running smoothly, even though I am still quite much of a newbie to Linux. As I am an astronomer, I have lots of funny software which different people have helped me to install - usually these installations have been tricky processes taking an hour or two for an experienced user, and this is nothing that I could repeat myself. (If it is relevant, the programs are Iraf, Miriad, DS9, xs, ...)
However, I have recently bought a mobile internet device, which does not work in Intrepid (it is a Huawei E122). When running the Lucid Live CD it works just out of the box without problems. Because of this, I am considering to upgrade.
The problem is that I am afraid that some/all of the programs mentioned above will not work after an upgrade. I don't really know how to test it, since they need different shells/terminals that I cannot install from the Live CD (csh, xgterm, tcsh, etc).
So my questions are:
Can you find out a way to test these programs without making any changes to my system?
Can I backup my system so I can restore it completely in case an upgrade messes things up (my /home folder is on a separate partition, if that helps)?
Would you recommend an upgrade (Intrepid->Jaunty->Karmic->Lucid) with my current situation?
Thanks a lot for any help!
I have been running Intrepid for a year and a half, and it is mostly running smoothly, even though I am still quite much of a newbie to Linux. As I am an astronomer, I have lots of funny software which different people have helped me to install - usually these installations have been tricky processes taking an hour or two for an experienced user, and this is nothing that I could repeat myself. (If it is relevant, the programs are Iraf, Miriad, DS9, xs, ...)
However, I have recently bought a mobile internet device, which does not work in Intrepid (it is a Huawei E122). When running the Lucid Live CD it works just out of the box without problems. Because of this, I am considering to upgrade.
The problem is that I am afraid that some/all of the programs mentioned above will not work after an upgrade. I don't really know how to test it, since they need different shells/terminals that I cannot install from the Live CD (csh, xgterm, tcsh, etc).
So my questions are:
Can you find out a way to test these programs without making any changes to my system?
Can I backup my system so I can restore it completely in case an upgrade messes things up (my /home folder is on a separate partition, if that helps)?
Would you recommend an upgrade (Intrepid->Jaunty->Karmic->Lucid) with my current situation?
Thanks a lot for any help!