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ZDNET key takeaways
- Hopping to a unique distro does not imply it’s a must to lose knowledge.
- There are three choices you’ll be able to attempt.
- Be sure that to check these earlier than you do it.
Are you feeling that everlasting pull to leap to a unique Linux distribution? It occurs. I’ve gone by means of that have so many instances that I’ve misplaced depend.
Migrating from one distribution to a different is not all that arduous… Until you need to retain all the knowledge inside your own home listing (or any listing, for that matter). Should you do not do one thing to avoid wasting that knowledge, you’ll lose out and have to start out throughout.
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You do not need that (until you don’t have anything of significance in your house listing).
What you are able to do relies on your setup and desires.
One of the simplest ways to change distributions and maintain your knowledge
Linux is so properly designed which you could set up the working system in such a method that your own home listing could be simply migrated from one distribution to a different.
The way you do that is to partition the distribution in order that your own home listing is on a separate partition from the OS.
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Let me present you the fundamentals of how that is accomplished, demonstrating on the most recent launch of Ubuntu. Earlier than you even begin the set up, it’s best to both ensure there is a second disk in your machine or join an exterior SSD (with a cable quick sufficient to deal with knowledge transmission). To do that, stroll by means of the set up as you usually would till you attain the Disk Setup part.
Whenever you’re introduced with the 2 routes of organising your disk, choose “Guide set up.” Within the ensuing window, it’s best to see your drive listed. When you have a secondary drive, it must be listed as properly.
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Choose the secondary disk after which click on +. When prompted, configure the dimensions you need to use for the /residence partition, choose /residence from the Mount Level drop-down, after which click on OK.
After that, repeat the method, solely this time choose the first drive, click on +, and configure the mount level as /. Be sure that to allocate the quantity of area you need for the partition (fairly presumably the whole drive), and click on OK after which Subsequent.
At this level, end the set up as you’ll usually.
Now that you have configured your /residence partition to be on a separate disk, you’ll be able to hop distributions everytime you need, ensuring to put in the OS on the first drive.
Backups
The opposite technique for saving your knowledge is through backups. That is proper, the outdated backup routine.
As for backing up /residence, you do not need to again up the whole listing. As an alternative, again up your consumer listing inside /residence (resembling /residence/jack) to an exterior drive (even a USB flash drive). You’ll be able to both again up the whole lot in that listing, or solely the folders containing the info/information you need to save.
Do consider, nevertheless, that there are hidden folders that comprise app configurations, caches, and different bits. Due to that, I might suggest backing up the whole lot in your house listing.
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Should you’re unsure which backup instrument to make use of, I like to recommend Déjà Dup, TimeShift, or Fortunate Backup (every of which could be put in from the usual repositories).
After getting that taken care of, ensure to again up some other necessary knowledge, though an important knowledge on a desktop machine shall be in your house listing.
Now you can set up the brand new OS. I might ensure to create your own home listing on a secondary drive, so you do not have to undergo this the subsequent time you hop.
After the set up completes, reboot, join the drive housing the info, open your file supervisor, and begin copying issues over.
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Don’t merely copy your consumer listing from the secondary drive to the /residence listing on the first drive, as you may run into permissions or possession points.
A hybrid
There’s an alternative choice that is a form of hybrid. To illustrate you’ve got copied your necessary directories out of your /residence to an exterior (or secondary inside) drive.
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As an alternative of copying these directories, you’ll be able to merely hyperlink them. To illustrate you’ve got copied the whole lot in ~/Paperwork to a secondary drive that’s mounted at /media/jack/drive1/, and also you need to hyperlink your ~/Paperwork listing with it.
First, delete the ~/Paperwork listing (assuming it is empty) with the command:
rm -rf ~/Paperwork
Subsequent, challenge the next command out of your unique residence listing:
ln -s /media/jack/drive1/Paperwork /residence/jack/drive1/Paperwork
You need to now see a brand new ~/Paperwork listing, containing the whole lot in /media/jack/drive1/Paperwork.
And there you might have it.
My final suggestion is that you simply take a look at these strategies on a spare machine. On prime of that, irrespective of which route you are taking, all the time again up your knowledge.
