Installing new distro over another

[Dann]

I have my hard drive partitioned in to
/
/home
and swap

I have ubuntu hardy installed. I want to put Intrepid on it. How would I go about installing the distro just to the "/" partition?

I know I could just do the distro upgrade. I've done that on another on a computer, and it seem to have worked fine. I've heard a lot of bad things about doing it this way, though. Is that as bad as they say it is?

[coopstah13]

I personally prefer to do a fresh install, especially when you have the partitions set up that way. Just go through the installer as normal, but pick manual setup of partitions instead of automatic, select and assign the partitions in the editor the same way you have them set up for hardy and you should be all set.

[oz]

I second the recommendation for a fresh install, all the way.

If you have any data that you don't want to lose, you can copy it off to another partition, or to a flash drive, then restore it after the new system is in place.

[Dann]

I personally prefer to do a fresh install, especially when you have the partitions set up that way. Just go through the installer as normal, but pick manual setup of partitions instead of automatic, select and assign the partitions in the editor the same way you have them set up for hardy and you should be all set.

So could I choose to have it installed to the "/" partition? Will my existing /home partition remain untouched?

[thorkelljarl]

Indeed. Select manual and when you find your way to the display listing your present partitions you can select to format only root(/), leaving swap and /home unformated. Your files in /home are thereby undisturbed, as well as the settings from your prior heron installation. It is possable to eliminate these, but you must ask another where they are and how it's done. A backup of /home is always for the good, thereby allowing you have two before and at least one after. I don't care for Gnome or Brown, or the fanfare, but Ubuntu certainly installs quickly. Luck.

[Dann]

Indeed. Select manual and when you find your way to the display listing your present partitions you can select to format only root(/), leaving swap and /home unformated. Your files in /home are thereby undisturbed, as well as the settings from your prior heron installation. It is possable to eliminate these, but you must ask another where they are and how it's done. A backup of /home is always for the good, thereby allowing you have two before and at least one after. I don't care for Gnome or Brown, or the fanfare, but Ubuntu certainly installs quickly. Luck.

Hm, so all my heron settings are in my /home partition? I assumed all my software and settings and things went to my "/" partition.

[MikeTbob]

Hm, so all my heron settings are in my /home partition? I assumed all my software and settings and things went to my "/" partition.

He just meant your Desktop settings and program settings that are saved in your /home/ directory, you can't see them because they are hidden.

All of your software is on the / partition (or was).

[Dann]

He just meant your Desktop settings and program settings that are saved in your /home/ directory, you can't see them because they are hidden.

All of your software is on the / partition (or was).

I see. Is there a way to clear those?

Basically, I want a clean install without losing all my documents, and pictures and all that.

[thorkelljarl]

Yes. Somewhere Google knows.