tip: save time on reinstalls

Nick Levinson · #1 9th March 2009, 12:13 AM

When installing, write down your customizations, including settings and software you add.

Lately, I've had to reinstall every couple of months due to crashes. Lots of customizations follow, which are easy to forget, but I usually use the same ones each time, and some settings I leave at their defaults. A list lets me skip the ones I don't change, saving time.

Keep the list as text on another machine, in the order in which you carry out your steps, starting with what original software you want handy for a clean install.

I don't remember seeing this advice in a book on any OS.

--
Nick

marcrblevins · #2 9th March 2009, 10:41 AM

My way of finding stuff is before I change any .conf file on a freshly installed Fedora, I make a copy of it as .conf.original.
Example:

Code:

su -
cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.original
vi /etc/samba/smb.conf

I do a full fresh install on a newly released Fedora, restored my backup under a different directory.

Code:

su -
updatedb
locate .original

It shows me all the .original file I copied and do a diff from there. I don't copy files over, I copy/paste only. Cause future rpms may have added new functionality in those .conf.
Differences:

Code:

su -
diff /etc/samba/smb.conf.original /etc/samba/smb.conf

Good luck.

Lebenskuenstler · #3 9th March 2009, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Levinson

When installing, write down your customizations, including settings and software you add.

Lately, I've had to reinstall every couple of months due to crashes. Lots of customizations follow, which are easy to forget, but I usually use the same ones each time, and some settings I leave at their defaults. A list lets me skip the ones I don't change, saving time.

Keep the list as text on another machine, in the order in which you carry out your steps, starting with what original software you want handy for a clean install.

I don't remember seeing this advice in a book on any OS.

--
Nick

Also a good time saver is to enable the Updates Repo (saves at least an hour of installing updates) and of course RPMFusion Repo during intall.