10.10 and 12.04lts

[davesbrain]

I was thinking about installing 12.04LTS on same hard-drive that already has 10.10 on it. I would like to keep 10.10 as my 'fallback'. There's tons of stuff on my 10.10 that I do not want to lose. Any special instructions for doing this or is it pretty straight forward at the partition phase?

[Dennis N]

Yes, I do the same myself - keep a previous version and install the newer one in a dual boot setup. If the newer one is found satisfactory, you can transfer your data and reuse the old partion if you want to. Or leave it as a backup.

How you proceed depends on what the partition table looks like now.

Install (if necessary) and use gparted to see the existing partiton table. You can take a screen shot.

If you post the screenshot, you can get further advice on how to proceed.

[fantab]

10.10 is 'dead', no more support. I don't see any point in keeping it as a "fallback".
Do you have a separate /home with your 10.10 setup? If yes, then you can leave it untouched and install 12.04 on 10.10 "/" partition using only '/' as mountpoint. This way you can use the 10.10 /home as your data partition and the new 12.04 'Home' will be created in / partition.

Or you can delete all the dotfolders from 10.10 '/home' and reuse it as /home with 12.04. DO NOT FORMAT the partitions. Dotfolders (.folder) are hidden folders that save your application preferences and settings. They might create problems with newer version of same applications.

To do either, you have to use "Something Else" option when choosing your 'Installation Type' in the installer.

[davesbrain]

Well, I already do have a dual boot setup with WinXP on a separate physical drive. In the past I usually just unplug the XP drive before messing with Linux upgrades and/or partitions then plug it back in before updating grub.

[Bucky Ball]

All good then. As fantab has outlined; when you get to the partitioning section of the 12.04 LTS install choose 'Something Else'. Your /home (if you have one) and /swap will be clearly visible. Leave them be. Mark them to be used but NOT to be formatted. Make sure they are unticked (V important). The 12.04 install will then use the existing /home and /swap and NOT create new ones.

This is a good example of why a separate /home partition, or data partition of any kind, is a good idea. Then you can just kill the partition with the OS and nothing else (theoretically!) is touched.

I actually have a few installs and let the /home directory install on / as you would, then delete the folders in the /home directory and use symlinks to link to already existing directories, i.e. /documents, /video etc., on another partition. Plenty of options. Good luck. ;)

PS: And yea, forget 10.10. That died April last year and importantly hasn't had security updates since then, which is a bad thing and a risky pursuit if the machine is online. ;(

[Dennis N]

Well, I already do have a dual boot setup with WinXP on a separate physical drive. In the past I usually just unplug the XP drive before messing with Linux upgrades and/or partitions then plug it back in before updating grub.

As you boot from the Linux drive, should be easy. Post a gparted screenshot if you want any help with the partitioning. You need to decide whether to keep the 11.10 or not. Even if it is out of support, you can keep the web browser up-to-date yourself. You also need to decide if you want a separate home partition.

[davesbrain]

Well, all things considered, I went ahead and did the upgrade entirely. Lots of new stuff to learn and get use to. I do appreciate the help though. Thank you.