Linux Install Stratergy

[greggpb]

Been dual booting Ubuntu for a while..... so I have half a clue about linux.. I was wondering what is the best way to install ubuntu so the upgrade between versions are easy.. currently I re install the entire thing...

How would you partition things if you wanteed just the os to be install in one place ? and would you be able to upgrade the os without loosing all you other installed programs ? Apache and the like of would you have to reinstall them when you reinstall the os.. ?

 

[remybfg10k]

First tip, don't spell your root password wrong.

 

[fskmh]

There's a related thread here:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=137663

I don't use *ubuntu but I would have at least the following partitions:
/ (Anywhere from 6GB to 15GB, depending on what you install.)
/home (Most space would be reserved for this.)
I normally make swap the same size as RAM (in GiB not GB) so that tuxonice does not complain about the image size being too big.
For a server you should probably also have a partition for /var

I would have www and ftp public in /home and then bind-mount or just symlink to /var/blah. (I know this location differs from distro to distro.)
For a desktop with Matlab, CrossOver etc. I would also move them to /home and then symlink so that the new installation doesn't clobber them.

N.B. Save your entire /etc somewhere or your /etc/X11/xorg.conf at the very least, esp. if you've customised it yourself for SLi, twinview or whatever.