On 17 September 2010 21:11, alan c <[email protected]> wrote: > I have a friend with Ubuntu 9.04 and I will do a version upgrade for > them soon. One option is to version upgrade online to 9.10 and then, > at another convenient future date, version upgrade to 10.04 LTS, > which they will stay with for a longer time. > > Another option is to do a clean reinstall of Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS now, > and then re-configure to match the user's apps and data. > > One suggestion I have received is, that after a clean reinstall of > 10.04.1, I could then replace the clean /home/username directory with > the copy of the directory from the user's 9.04 which I would have > created earlier in careful backups. > > Thinking of this last option, I find a number of questions come to mind. > What is the effect of brutally just replacing /home/username from an > earlier version, possibly two or so versions old? The user has one app > for example, Digikam (in Ubuntu) which they regularly use, and this I > guess uses a number of kde libraries whatever. I cannot help > wondering what sort of clean up (or chaos) I might be faced with, > perhaps out of my depth too, by following this latter approach. > > I would welcome comments here.
Get them onto the LTS release *now* and then you can safely leave 'em there 'til 2012. *Don't* put them onto 9.10, it's already obsolescent. Me, personally, I'd say wipe & reload. It's easier than doing 9.04 -> 9.10 followed by 9.10 -> 10.04. Just move /home into a separate filesystem, if it isn't already, make a note of any apps and config you need, then reformat / and install 10.04 into it. Let the install procedure pick up the existing /home/$username folder - it should sort things out for you. If possible, avoid replacing it later; have it there, /in situ/, first. -- Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: [email protected] • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: [email protected] Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • MSN: [email protected] • ICQ: 73187508 -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
