Preserve Home Directory, Preparing to Upgrade,

[webmanoffesto]

I seems to me that I must upgrade my Ubuntu Gnome installation, to resolve a WiFi problem. I'm confused by the screens and options which the Ubuntu Gnome installation disk presents me with.

GParted says
/dev/sda1, ext4, 862.28 GB
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda5, ext, 18.63 GB
/dev/sda6, linux-swap, 50.6 GB

The below screens are a bit confusing. Please tell me how to make sure that I keep my Home Directory (which I think is: /dev/sda1, ext4, 862.28 GB)
and install/upgrade to the correct sectors
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda5, ext, 18.63 GB
/dev/sda6, linux-swap, 50.6 GB

Screenshots here
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff365/webmanoffesto/Installation.Type..Write.the.Changes.to.Disks..Cro pped..800W..v01.png
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff365/webmanoffesto/Installation.Type..Cropped..800W..v01.png

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My seemingly unresolvable WiFi Problem, which brings me to Upgrade Ubuntu Gnome: Forum Post: "Can't Connect to WIFI, related to 'sudo connmanctl'?"
- https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2337096&p=13544654#post13544654

[Bucky Ball]

Upgrade it to what, exacty? You are already running 16.04 by the looks of that other thread. I see no where on that thread that advises you should upgrade the OS, so what's making you 'think' this is a solution?

To keep the contents of your /home directory, back it up to an external device. Get rid of what looks like a 7.10 install.

PS: Please start attaching your large pics with Go Advanced or Adv Reply and the paperclip icon there rather than inserting them into the body or your post or post links rather than wasting space with a large image. Spare a thought for potential helpers with slow connections and/or vision issues. Thanks.

[webmanoffesto]

Upgrade it to what, exacty? You are already running 16.04 by the looks of that other thread. I see no where on that thread that advises you should upgrade the OS, so what's making you 'think' this is a solution?

This is a method of "reverting" back to an install which has working WiFi.



To keep the contents of your /home directory, back it up to an external device. Get rid of what looks like a 7.10 install.


That's strange. I don't remember installing 7.10. Can I format just that sector and then see if the Live Disk seems to understand better how to reinstall Ubuntu Gnome without reformatting my Home directory?

[Bucky Ball]

When you say /home directory, what exactly to you mean? Your /home directory is in the / partition, wherey your OS is installed, so if you overwrite that partition with another install your /home directory will naturally be overwritten.

So backup any valuable data in your /home directory. Are you meaning you want to save your user settings from /home or backup your /home directory wholesale, install, then replace the new /home directory with the old?

If you had a separate /home partition, it would be a different story of course, but you don't. You have sda1, which looks like 7.10 Debian, sda5 which is your Ubuntu install (/)which is where your /home directory is, and you have sda6 which is your /swap.

Still not sure how this has anything to do with fixing your wireless, but maybe I'm missing something. :-k

[webmanoffesto]

When you say /home directory, what exactly to you mean? :-k
I meant reinstall the OS and preserve my data and settings. I thought I had one partition for data and one partition for OS. I guess I undid the separation the last time I reinstalled. Now I'll have to repartition AND reinstall.

Before I reinstall, I located something odd. Does the below help you to understand my WiFi problem?
"The output of "cat /etc/resolv.conf" is "# Generated by Connection Manager". @dlech
The output of "ls -l /etc/resolv.conf" is "-rw-rw-r-- 1 root tom 34 Sep 13 14:27 /etc/resolv.conf""
- from a chat here https://gitter.im/ev3dev/chat

also
"I just ran "sudo apt-get install network-manager" while on wired ethernet internet. That installed fine (second time?), I didn't get a message about removing connman. Then I unplugged the ethernet cable. That put me on WiFi and I successfully pinged Google. Great. But for some reason I am still unable to surf the web in Firefox or Chromium. This doesn't make sense."

[Bucky Ball]

The screenshot you posted in post #1 confirms your partition setup.

http://s1232.photobucket.com/user/webmanoffesto/media/Installation.Type..Cropped..800W..v01.png.html

For a clean install, I generally get a pen, paper, beverage, seat, then sit down and scribble a mud-map of how I want the drive to look once it's partitioned so I have some plan to follow before I put the USB in and hit the 'ON' button.

Doing this stuff 'on the fly' is not the way to go. You want to have a solid idea of the outcome you're after and how to get there before you begin. :)

Looking at what you have there, a 1Tb drive, and presuming you just want a simple install, perhaps

/ = 20-25Gb;
/home = all other available space except;
/swap = 2Gb at the very end of the drive.

These mountpoints are available as defaults if you use 'Something Else' for partitioning during install. With a separate /home partition you won't run in to quite this issue again.

There are other ways. You can partition as above, but call the /home partition /data and let the /home directory be created by default in /, as per normal. You then delete the default personal data directories in /home, like /Music, /Documents, etc., and recreate them in the /data partition and create symlinks to them in your /home directory inside /.

[webmanoffesto]

Looking at what you have there, a 1Tb drive, and presuming you just want a simple install, perhaps
/ = 20-25Gb;
/home = all other available space except;
/swap = 2Gb at the very end of the drive.
These mountpoints are available as defaults if you use 'Something Else' for partitioning during install. With a separate /home partition you won't run in to quite this issue again.


Yes, that's what I want. Nothing too fancy.

[webmanoffesto]

I am now able to surf the net on wired ethernet and on WiFi!
In file /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/base I added the following entries:
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4


I'm thrilled that I was FINALLY able to resolve this problem without resorting to reinstall.

[webmanoffesto]

Update: I again have no internet. I wish to report a bug, there is a ghost in my computer.

I can surf the net via Wired ethernet. I cannot surf the net via WiFi.

[oldos2er]

I cannot surf the net via WiFi.

Please start a new thread in the Networking & Wireless (https://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=336) forum, and be sure to mention the make/model of your wireless device.

[Bucky Ball]

Please start a new thread in the Networking & Wireless (https://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=336) forum, and be sure to mention the make/model of your wireless device.

+1. Off topic to this and will get confusing. Up to you whether you want to start the wireless thread, get that sorted and leave this for now or continue with the original support request here, or both.