Alain Toussaint <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > tonight,i got dselect to upgrade my debian distribution,i connected to the > ftp.debian.org site (via dselect),cd to /debian,it updated her package.gz > file,and i choosen to install all package suggested by dselect in the > install menu,but the installation has gone wrong,i tried to undo the > change but this only got me in trouble (i'm a beginner only using debian > since 4th january),here's what i want to know,i need to save my personnal > mail,i want to wipe-out the linux partition and re-install thing up (i'm > using a CD from boot magazine to install debian on my computer): > > 1-:my mail is stored in /var/spool/mail/$USER (i.e.my username),do i need > just to copy this file (to another partition) and when i'm done,i re-copy > the file to it original place (i.e. /var/spool/mail/$USER) and pine will > acomodate it ??
This should work OK. You will probably need root permissions to do this. > 2-:if i wipe-out my hard disk,does PPP networking would be available on > the boot,root and install disk so that instead of using the CD,i could > connect directly to the net for the latest distribution ?? The base disk installation provides ppp. You would have to setup /etc/ppp/peers/provider and /etc/chatscripts/provider with the correct telephone number, responses, etc. to work with your ISP. > 3 (and last)-:the distribution on the CD is debian 1.3.0 and the one from > ftp.debian.org is 1.3.1r6 (i think..i'm not sure),does it is worth the > trouble to connect to the net for the latest release or i'm better of > keeping the CD version ?? Someone else has advised you that a 1.3.1r6 CDs are available at farily cheap prices. Another approach is to reinstall from the 1.3 CD, then use dselect/dpkg-ftp to upgrade. That would greatly reduce the amount of data to be downloaded by ftp, which would be beneficial if on-line time is a concern. With a 28.8 connection a complete install by ftp might run 12-26 hours or longer, depending on how many packages you install, but upgrading from 1.3 to 1.3.1r6 would take less than 20% of that. -- _ |_) _ |_ Robert D. Hilliard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> |_) (_) |_) Palm City, FL USA PGP Key ID: A8E40EB9 -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .