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Groups > comp.misc > #17250

Re: wipe and reinstall

From Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net>
Newsgroups comp.misc
Subject Re: wipe and reinstall
Date 2019-01-14 12:23 +0000
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <slrnq3ovqe.vve.dan@xps-linux.djph.net> (permalink)
References <0fmsgf-h6d.ln1@rasp.therandymon.com>

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RS Wood wrote:
> It's not as easy to wipe a Linux partition and restore these days, though
> ostensibly with Linux that should be one of the advantages.  I had a Linux
> Mint box I wanted to upgrade, so I backed everything up to my FreeNAS,
> wiped the machine, and then began restoring from my backup, only to
> find not everything worked as I thought it should, and now I've got a
> chore trying to figure out what went wrong.
>
> The things I most want to avoid having to reconfigure are: Firefox
> bookmarks, passwords, and history; Evolution IMAP, CardDAV and CALDAV
> configs, and Cinnamon desktop configs, but those are the exact things that
> gave me trouble.  I think one of the issues is actually security:
> passwords are hashed using a salt that doesn't carry over to the new
> machine, so you've got to manually reconnect all the IMAP and DAV
> configs.

Sounds like your "backup" wasn't as extensive as you thought.  

I've had little trouble transferring $HOME between distros, although I
don't keep all that much.  

  -- firefox / tbird (.mozilla )
  -- .gnupg
  -- .ssh


Docu and everything else are pulled over when I realize I need
something -- no point in "wasting" the bandwidth moving docs from 4
years ago that I'm never gonna touch again.
>
> Then, Firefox helpfully starts you out with a "fresh" profile, which
> takes a while to reconfigure (I think they want you to use their
> Firefox sync service, which in truth would've saved me some hassle -
> I've begun using it now - but introduces security questions of its
> own).

While I admittedly use that to keep stuff between the phone and the PC
sync'd up; I don't need to use it to restore PC settings on reinstall.

It's possible the .mozilla/firefox/default.whatever profile has changed
names, or that you created your own non-default profile to use.

> [...]
> I remember in the days of fluxbox, mutt, and sylpheed you could very
> easily backup $HOME to a USB key, wipe your Linux install, and then
> reinstall $HOME from your USB key.  

Works for me .. although I use XFCE for the most part.  

> Those days seem to be well and over.  Too bad! Don't think FreeBSD
> would've saved me any time either, it seems to be the way modern Linux
> apps are configured. 

I've yet to run into actual _problems_ ; except for upgrading between
17.x and 18.0; at which I had some issues with systemd and promptly
reformatted back to 17 until I could do further research and find
something that hadn't drunk the koolaid yet.


-- 
|_|O|_| Registered Linux user #585947
|_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert
|O|O|O| PGP: 05CA 9A50 3F2E 1335 4DC5  4AEE 8E11 DDF3 1279 A281

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Thread

wipe and reinstall RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-01-13 16:16 -0500
  Re: wipe and reinstall Bob Eager <news0073@eager.cx> - 2019-01-14 00:17 +0000
    Re: wipe and reinstall RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-01-14 00:51 +0000
      Re: wipe and reinstall Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2019-01-13 22:08 -0500
        Re: wipe and reinstall Bob Eager <news0073@eager.cx> - 2019-01-14 09:24 +0000
        Re: wipe and reinstall RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-01-17 18:44 +0300
          Re: wipe and reinstall Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> - 2019-01-17 11:19 -0500
          Re: wipe and reinstall Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2019-01-17 17:09 +0000
      Re: wipe and reinstall Kerry Imming <kcimming@pobox.com> - 2019-01-14 11:52 -0600
      digital hoarding Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net> - 2019-01-15 18:25 +0000
        Re: digital hoarding Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-01-15 19:32 +0000
          Re: digital hoarding Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net> - 2019-01-15 19:57 +0000
            Re: digital hoarding Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-01-15 20:05 +0000
              Re: digital hoarding Ivan Shmakov <ivan@siamics.net> - 2019-01-15 20:20 +0000
          Re: digital hoarding not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2019-01-15 22:25 +0000
            Re: digital hoarding Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-01-15 22:45 +0000
              Re: digital hoarding Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2019-01-16 04:03 +0000
                Re: digital hoarding Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-01-16 22:15 +0000
                Re: digital hoarding not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2019-01-17 22:11 +0000
                Re: digital hoarding Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-01-17 22:54 +0000
                Re: digital hoarding Eric Pozharski <whynot@pozharski.name> - 2019-01-18 15:32 +0200
                Re: digital hoarding Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2019-01-18 01:56 -0400
                Re: digital hoarding Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2019-01-26 07:35 +0000
                Re: digital hoarding Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-01-28 05:10 +0000
  Re: wipe and reinstall "Dirk T. Verbeek" <dverbeek@xs4all.nl> - 2019-01-14 11:36 +0100
  Re: wipe and reinstall "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-14 12:07 +0100
    Re: wipe and reinstall Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-01-14 13:01 +0000
      Re: wipe and reinstall Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2019-01-14 15:32 +0000
        Re: wipe and reinstall Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-01-14 15:36 +0000
      Re: wipe and reinstall "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-15 10:22 +0100
        Re: wipe and reinstall Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-01-15 09:47 +0000
          Re: wipe and reinstall "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-15 11:13 +0100
        Re: wipe and reinstall Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-01-15 19:42 +0000
  Re: wipe and reinstall Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2019-01-14 11:31 +0000
    Re: wipe and reinstall scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2019-01-14 21:52 +0000
      Re: wipe and reinstall gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2019-01-15 00:33 +0000
  Re: wipe and reinstall Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> - 2019-01-14 12:23 +0000
  Re: wipe and reinstall kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2019-01-14 17:21 -0500
  Re: wipe and reinstall J <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2019-01-16 12:55 +0000
    Re: wipe and reinstall Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-01-16 14:24 +0000
  Re: wipe and reinstall Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-01-17 12:55 +1100

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