From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from aftermath.mail.pas.earthlink.net ([207.217.120.69]) by speech.braille.uwo.ca with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 1DToxr-0000F3-00 for ; Thu, 05 May 2005 18:37:04 -0400 Received: from pop-a065d23.pas.sa.earthlink.net ([207.217.121.254]) by aftermath.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #4) id 1DTjTc-0007tW-00 for speakup@braille.uwo.ca; Thu, 05 May 2005 09:45:28 -0700 Received: from user-10ib9c5.biz.mindspring.com ([65.37.165.133] helo=bruzos) by pop-a065d23.pas.sa.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #10) id 1DTjTa-0004jX-00; Thu, 05 May 2005 09:45:26 -0700 Received: by bruzos (Postfix, from userid 501) id 9B75510039; Thu, 5 May 2005 12:45:25 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 5 May 2005 12:45:25 -0400 From: David Bruzos To: Glenn at home , "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." Message-ID: <20050505164525.GA26408@bruzos.org> References: <02bf01c55126$24ffacf0$6a00a8c0@desktop> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <02bf01c55126$24ffacf0$6a00a8c0@desktop> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Subject: Re: re-installing Debian X-BeenThere: speakup@braille.uwo.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Id: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 05 May 2005 22:37:04 -0000 Hi Glenn: The answer to your question is yes. As long as you have a /home partition, then all you have to do is not format your /home partition when you install over. Make sure that you have the partition by checking if the root partition (/) is different from your /home. For example, your root might be something like /dev/hda2 and your /home might be something like /dev/hda4. If both are the same, then you will have to use another method of backing up your files. Use the "df" command to find out, or look in /etc/fstab. If you can burn your stuff to CD, I definitly recommend you do that. Sometimes a simple mistake can result in your HDD getting wiped out. I just recently made one of those mistakes and load-leveled my root partition. I was trying to repare an HD with bad blocks and I typed /dev/hda instead of /dev/hdc, it was late at night! Good thing that all of my docs/music/movies/etc are on my server over NFS! Oh well, I ended up reinstalling Gentoo instead of FC3 and I am very happy with it... HTH David B. On Wed, May 04, 2005 at 10:54:31PM -0500, Glenn at home wrote: > First of all, I wanted to mention here that I was going through some of the > messages I have saved since I first installed Debian, and it is wonderful > how I have gotten so much help from this list, even though it seems that I > still have a lot to learn. > > I have been trying to fix my broken Debian since I really messed it up with > a failed attempt at upgrading. > I did: > apt-get dist-upgrade > and now I get a kernel panic: attempt to kill init > and above that it reads: > modprobe error invalid line 237 in init.conf > or something like that. > And I have looked at line 237, and even tried remming it out, with # and it > still does not work. > > I know someone who was going to try and log on with SSH, but he cannot get > through my router. > So it seems that that option is out. > > So I was wondering if I can just re-install Debian without losing my files > in /home/ftp/etc/pub? > Thanks for any ideas. > Glenn > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup