Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Jack Strangio Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: How do home users of linux protect themselves against ill-advised changes? Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2015 01:36:15 GMT Organization: North Star Horizon Builders Club Lines: 32 Message-ID: References: Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="3e657bdea6b7aef1ac09b31dcca154f6"; logging-data="24705"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18GyIwZwu94d6vzm/eq/qjXwPJ44pm+API=" X-Newsreader: TASS News Reader 3.7.2 jvs [linux] Cancel-Lock: sha1:teeYu+CPL6Bs8rqyNeqWkQAGAeI= Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:13201 Jeremy Nicoll - news posts writes: > How do home users of linux protect themselves against ill-advised changes? > > What I mean is, if they install patches or some package whose configuration > screws things up, and they then can't boot - what then? I have two distros installed at all times. If one distro gets mangled in any way I just reboot using the 'backup' distro. When I partition a disk, I set aside two partitions for two distro root systems. Then there is a common swap, a common /home and a common /u (long-term storage) partition. Generally, the two distros are the current and the previous distro versions, so I might be running Mint 16 on my 'non-current' partition and Mint 17 on my 'current' partition. When Mint 18 gets released, it will be installed over the Mint 16 partition. That then becomes the 'current' distro and Mint 17 will then become my 'non-current' or 'backup' system. I do a daily backup overnight which saves /etc, crontabs, software packages list, mysql databases, /usr/local, user /home(s), and local git and calibre data. I keep handy a grub rescue disk in case the grub boot manager gets clobbered somehow. Jack -- "I'm a home-loving girl. And that's where I wish I was." "At home ..." "Loving." - Laugh-In, 1968