8.04 Disaster, now to 10.04?

[colintivy]

I know that there are a few posts of this style but do not want to but in.

I have been wanting to make this move for some time and remain in the LTS state. In making periodical back-ups of /Home,/dev and /etc using Simple Backup, I( find that I have inadvertantly made a rod for my back in that my HD is now full and 8.04 is very tattered. This, I now know has happened before to some folks. I have sought advice about deleting files, including Arun's blog on the subject, and found that an array of Trash files has accumulated which was able to delete and cure the problem. This I have not been able to do and now intend to srub out 8.04 and start with a fresh install of 10.04. I have the backups on external USB Sticks which, apart from needing unzipping, ought to get back my files into the new OS. I intend to demolish all the old partitions using GParted from a Live CD in Try it out mode and then boot into 10.04 for the new installation. I intend to make a separate /home partition, probably using Kuznetsov. unless it is possible to do it within the generation of the partitions during the install. Is this likely to be the best route?

I expect to allocate 15GB for/, 512Mb for Swap and 2GB for /home. This will leave spare on a nominally 60GB drive

colintivy ???

[colintivy]

Oh dear! I am urgently in need of getting this done but too few folks have come back to advise. Please help.

Colin D:

[wojox]

Sure, when you install 10.04 you will come to the partitioning screen. Choose manual and delete your previous partitions and create your new ones.

[kansasnoob]

I know that there are a few posts of this style but do not want to but in.

I have been wanting to make this move for some time and remain in the LTS state. In making periodical back-ups of /Home,/dev and /etc using Simple Backup, I( find that I have inadvertantly made a rod for my back in that my HD is now full and 8.04 is very tattered. This, I now know has happened before to some folks. I have sought advice about deleting files, including Arun's blog on the subject, and found that an array of Trash files has accumulated which was able to delete and cure the problem. This I have not been able to do and now intend to srub out 8.04 and start with a fresh install of 10.04. I have the backups on external USB Sticks which, apart from needing unzipping, ought to get back my files into the new OS. I intend to demolish all the old partitions using GParted from a Live CD in Try it out mode and then boot into 10.04 for the new installation. I intend to make a separate /home partition, probably using Kuznetsov. unless it is possible to do it within the generation of the partitions during the install. Is this likely to be the best route?

I expect to allocate 15GB for/, 512Mb for Swap and 2GB for /home. This will leave spare on a nominally 60GB drive

colintivy ???

IMO 2GB for /home is very, very small. Remember /home will hold all your documents, pictures, email accounts, etc.

Based on 512MB SWAP, do you have only 512MB of RAM? You can check the amount of RAM you have with the command:


free -m

I normally like to double the amount of RAM up to 1GB of RAM, and from 2GB upwards I just match the amount of RAM, eg:

256MB of RAM = 512MB of SWAP
512MB of RAM = 1GB of SWAP
1GB of RAM = 2GB of SWAP
2GB of RAM = 2GB of SWAP

I'd suggest a layout similar to this:

181846

Of course that's an 80GB drive, but 8 to 10 GB for / should be plenty.

Note: I used Gparted to create those and labeled them with /, /home, and SWAP only FYI.

If you have less than 512MB of RAM you'll likely have to use the alternate CD.

[colintivy]

@ kansasnoob

Hi! Thanks for that, all very pertinent. I take your point about Swap, some literature does suggest that Swap=RAM is enough but IGB for 512RAM (which is the maximum for my processor) will not be a problem. I do have enough room to increase my /home. The present size is about 750 MB but I could stretch it as you suggest.

I note that you are using ext4 formats, I presume that is now regarded as reliable now. My backup on USB are ext3 is this likely to create a problem? I note that you have used an extended partition for all except /. Is this normal or only for your set-up?

Talking of the location of stuff between the Partitions, where do the Applications sit? / or /home or /user or /var or /etc???

[colintivy]

Hi kansasnoob.

Thanks for all that, I am about to consider the repartioning as you suggest. Would it be sensible to put the new /home at the start of the Unallocated memory? I only ask this because some the tutorials suggest shrinking the / partition to allow for space for new /home. Because my / is full I cannot do this and I may have to adopt a different approach. There is a lot of space in unallocated to allow this. I might also stretch / to give me more elbow room there because taking out /home will only clea about 1Gb. I have been warned that fiddling with partitions can be very time- consuming so I do not want to do it too often.

In Arun's blog )www.blog.arun-prabha.com/2008/07/22deleting files from root's trash folder in Ubuntu) he speaks of finding the Trash files and deleting them. These are hidden files with . prefix. I have found out their full addresses but am not sure how to go from there. sudo rm -v looks promising but I do not want to clobber anything vital by using it. Any advice?

[colintivy]

Hi folks!

Found the Trash folders and deleted them, a bit difficult becausee they were hiden but sudo Nautilus let me! Now got a nice new Partition for /home using 9.10 Live CD for GParted, 10.04 CD still not useable in Live mode. Now to shift /home, it is a bit involved so must proceed with due care and attention. I am using TurboPrint2 to let my Canon i905D printer work, which it does very well. This was downloaded (and paid for) and I suspect that, because I cannot find it to back-up, it will probably disappear when I shift/home and instal 10.04, Does anyone know if Canon have produced a driver for Linux or CUPS can now cope with the printer by itself?

[colintivy]

Hi folks!!

Getting nearer to putting 10.04.2 in place of 8.04. I have LiveCDs of 9.10 and 10.04. When I tried to look at 10.04 in LiveCD mode I hit a stumbling block in that it would go to language and then to the boot panel but no obvious Try 10.04 option. If selected just 10.04, itseemed to churn away nicely but only asked for a username and password which suggested to me that it was trying to install itself, which I was not wanting to do, particularly because I had not then moved /home to its own partition (sda3). I am now in this happy (?) state but still cannot get past this log-on panel. I seem to remember that others out there had found a workround but cannot find the right posts that discuss this problem. Any ideas???

As an alternative I have thought of using 9.10 LiveCD (since it works fine) to install 9.10 and then use Upsate Manager to install 10.04.2 which has a dedicted button press. Is this a tolerable way to go ? or are ther other problems lurking that await me???? Guidance please.

[colintivy]

A bit serious here. BUMP PLEASE

[ronnielsen1]

As an alternative I have thought of using 9.10 LiveCD (since it works fine) to install 9.10 and then use Upsate Manager to install 10.04.2 which has a dedicted button press. Is this a tolerable way to go ? or are ther other problems lurking that await me???? Guidance please.

The forum is full of posts for bad upgrades. It's best to install fresh. Be sure to backup any important docs and/or save /home

[colintivy]

Thanks for that. It all seems to have worked OK and I am now sitting and watching 404 updates loading! Only 25 minutes at my rather leasurely download speed. 2KM of damp string to the exchange and not likely to change!!! I note that Update Manager still says 10.04.1 LTS Available, I believe it is at .2 status now.

Regards from wet & windy Wales (UK)>