ReInstall

Van Chocstraw · External Since: Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 34

I want to reinstall Opensuse 11.1 WITHOUT repartitioning and
reformatting. I want to save my vast mp3 collection. Somehow I broke
Gnome, XFCE, KDE 3 and 4 since their servers won't start up. I can only
use ICE to run Yast and stuff from terminal. I tried REPAIR but it
didn't find anything wrong other than a couple fstab entries.
How to reinstall without destroying the partition, that is the question.

J G Miller · External Since: Dec 08, 2004 Posts: 34

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:14:17 -0400, Van Chocstraw wrote:

> Somehow I broke Gnome, XFCE, KDE 3 and 4 since their servers
> won't start up.

What do you mean by "their servers" ??

Perhaps the X11 display manager?

There should be no need to do a re-installation, that is the
windoze way of thinking to solve a problem.

Van Chocstraw · External Since: Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 34

J G Miller wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:14:17 -0400, Van Chocstraw wrote:
>
> > Somehow I broke Gnome, XFCE, KDE 3 and 4 since their servers
> > won't start up.
>
> What do you mean by "their servers" ??
>
> Perhaps the X11 display manager?
>
> There should be no need to do a re-installation, that is the
> windoze way of thinking to solve a problem.

No, the error is Ksm server fails to start or kserverconfig fails to start.

Van Chocstraw · External Since: Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 34

Van Chocstraw wrote:
> J G Miller wrote:
>> On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:14:17 -0400, Van Chocstraw wrote:
>>
>> > Somehow I broke Gnome, XFCE, KDE 3 and 4 since their servers
>> > won't start up.
>>
>> What do you mean by "their servers" ??
>>
>> Perhaps the X11 display manager?
>>
>> There should be no need to do a re-installation, that is the
>> windoze way of thinking to solve a problem.
>
> No, the error is Ksm server fails to start or kserverconfig fails to start.

Oh yes and Gnome and XFCE come up with a nice background display but
stop short of loading up.

George · External Since: Mar 27, 2007 Posts: 2

Van Chocstraw wrote:
> Van Chocstraw wrote:
>> J G Miller wrote:
>>> On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:14:17 -0400, Van Chocstraw wrote:
>>>
>>> > Somehow I broke Gnome, XFCE, KDE 3 and 4 since their servers
>>> > won't start up.
>>>
>>> What do you mean by "their servers" ??
>>>
>>> Perhaps the X11 display manager?
>>>
>>> There should be no need to do a re-installation, that is the
>>> windoze way of thinking to solve a problem.
>>
>> No, the error is Ksm server fails to start or kserverconfig fails to
>> start.
>
> Oh yes and Gnome and XFCE come up with a nice background display but
> stop short of loading up.
You can use in a terminal "zypper in kde4 --force" without the quotes
will reinstall kde4 only, can do same for gnome,xfce,kd

DenverD · External Since: Jul 26, 2009 Posts: 19

Van Chocstraw wrote:
> I want to reinstall Opensuse 11.1 WITHOUT repartitioning and
> reformatting. I want to save my vast mp3 collection. Somehow I broke
> Gnome, XFCE, KDE 3 and 4 since their servers won't start up. I can only
> use ICE to run Yast and stuff from terminal. I tried REPAIR but it
> didn't find anything wrong other than a couple fstab entries.
> How to reinstall without destroying the partition, that is the question.

i guess you have probably killed X with a damaged Xorg.conf file...or
due to a graphics driver v kernel mismatch...which IS fixable (do you
have nVidia or ATI and a non open-source driver...and, your machine
went tits up after a kernel update??)...but, if you insist on doing it
the Redmond way (reboot reboot reboot...then reinstall reinstall):

STOP: if this system includes any non-linux partitions (like windows?)
then you are crazy if you continue prior to backing up all your mp3
collection, photos, and every thing else you wanna keep!

think carefully, then:

if your hard drive was setup by an 11.1 (or any openSUSE since, i
think, 10.2) install then your home directory is on its own partition...

and, if that is the case you can just put the install DVD in (NOT a
Live CD) and at the first screen
<http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Installation> select "install"

if you are not SURE that your home directory is on a separate
partition, then boot with the damaged Linux you have and in a terminal
enter each of these, one at a time :

cat /proc/partitions
df -h
df --print-type
cat /etc/fstab

and, you should be able to figure out what is what, or and copy/paste
them back to here and we can advise....otherwise if you are sure!
during the probe
<http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Step_2:_System_Analysis> it will
'see' your existing install and then i think it will offer to repair
(if the only repair you have tried so far was from the FIRST page i
listed above (or from a Live CD), then you probably SHOULD select the
repair on _this_ page
<http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Step_3:_Installation_Mode>
because i think it _will_ fix your system...probably...anyway, you
have nothing to loose because it should not touch your ALREADY
BACKED-UP mp3 collection.

if it doesn't do a good repair, when you get to this page the next
time through you can check "New Installation" and it will STILL see
the current one, AND that your /home is on a separate partition from
your system and it will ask if you want to keep your current home...if
you say yes (AND if your music collection is in your /home, (and not
somewhere outside of home....like on a Windows Partition) it *will* be
safe--HOWEVER, it is always best to BACKUP before you wish you
had!!...i highly recommend you do that before anything other than read
my caveat, below..

oh, and did i mention backup?

--
see caveat: http://tinyurl.com/6aagco
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315) via Thunderbird 3.0.1-1.1, KDE 3.5.7,
openSUSE Linux 10.3, 2.6.22.19-0.3-default #1 SMP i686 athlon

Van Chocstraw · External Since: Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 34

DenverD wrote:
> Van Chocstraw wrote:
>> I want to reinstall Opensuse 11.1 WITHOUT repartitioning and
>> reformatting. I want to save my vast mp3 collection. Somehow I broke
>> Gnome, XFCE, KDE 3 and 4 since their servers won't start up. I can only
>> use ICE to run Yast and stuff from terminal. I tried REPAIR but it
>> didn't find anything wrong other than a couple fstab entries.
>> How to reinstall without destroying the partition, that is the question.
>
> i guess you have probably killed X with a damaged Xorg.conf file...or
> due to a graphics driver v kernel mismatch...which IS fixable (do you
> have nVidia or ATI and a non open-source driver...and, your machine
> went tits up after a kernel update??)...but, if you insist on doing it
> the Redmond way (reboot reboot reboot...then reinstall reinstall):
>
>
> STOP: if this system includes any non-linux partitions (like windows?)
> then you are crazy if you continue prior to backing up all your mp3
> collection, photos, and every thing else you wanna keep!
>
> think carefully, then:
>
> if your hard drive was setup by an 11.1 (or any openSUSE since, i
> think, 10.2) install then your home directory is on its own partition...
>
> and, if that is the case you can just put the install DVD in (NOT a
> Live CD) and at the first screen
> <http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Installation> select "install"
>
> if you are not SURE that your home directory is on a separate
> partition, then boot with the damaged Linux you have and in a terminal
> enter each of these, one at a time :
>
> cat /proc/partitions
> df -h
> df --print-type
> cat /etc/fstab
>
> and, you should be able to figure out what is what, or and copy/paste
> them back to here and we can advise....otherwise if you are sure!
> during the probe
> <http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Step_2:_System_Analysis> it will
> 'see' your existing install and then i think it will offer to repair
> (if the only repair you have tried so far was from the FIRST page i
> listed above (or from a Live CD), then you probably SHOULD select the
> repair on _this_ page
> <http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Step_3:_Installation_Mode>
> because i think it _will_ fix your system...probably...anyway, you
> have nothing to loose because it should not touch your ALREADY
> BACKED-UP mp3 collection.
>
> if it doesn't do a good repair, when you get to this page the next
> time through you can check "New Installation" and it will STILL see
> the current one, AND that your /home is on a separate partition from
> your system and it will ask if you want to keep your current home...if
> you say yes (AND if your music collection is in your /home, (and not
> somewhere outside of home....like on a Windows Partition) it *will* be
> safe--HOWEVER, it is always best to BACKUP before you wish you
> had!!...i highly recommend you do that before anything other than read
> my caveat, below..
>
> oh, and did i mention backup?
>
Yes, I have a 20 gig root partition on this 400 gig drive, the rest is
the home partition. The winblows stuff is on another drive, is that safe?
If you can't depend on an os to write only to the root partition it's
pretty worthless don't you think?

Van Chocstraw · External Since: Jan 08, 2009 Posts: 34

DenverD wrote:
> Van Chocstraw wrote:
>> I want to reinstall Opensuse 11.1 WITHOUT repartitioning and
>> reformatting. I want to save my vast mp3 collection. Somehow I broke
>> Gnome, XFCE, KDE 3 and 4 since their servers won't start up. I can only
>> use ICE to run Yast and stuff from terminal. I tried REPAIR but it
>> didn't find anything wrong other than a couple fstab entries.
>> How to reinstall without destroying the partition, that is the question.
>
> i guess you have probably killed X with a damaged Xorg.conf file...or
> due to a graphics driver v kernel mismatch...which IS fixable (do you
> have nVidia or ATI and a non open-source driver...and, your machine
> went tits up after a kernel update??)...but, if you insist on doing it
> the Redmond way (reboot reboot reboot...then reinstall reinstall):
>
>
> STOP: if this system includes any non-linux partitions (like windows?)
> then you are crazy if you continue prior to backing up all your mp3
> collection, photos, and every thing else you wanna keep!
>
> think carefully, then:
>
> if your hard drive was setup by an 11.1 (or any openSUSE since, i
> think, 10.2) install then your home directory is on its own partition...
>
> and, if that is the case you can just put the install DVD in (NOT a
> Live CD) and at the first screen
> <http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Installation> select "install"
>
> if you are not SURE that your home directory is on a separate
> partition, then boot with the damaged Linux you have and in a terminal
> enter each of these, one at a time :
>
> cat /proc/partitions
> df -h
> df --print-type
> cat /etc/fstab
>
> and, you should be able to figure out what is what, or and copy/paste
> them back to here and we can advise....otherwise if you are sure!
> during the probe
> <http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Step_2:_System_Analysis> it will
> 'see' your existing install and then i think it will offer to repair
> (if the only repair you have tried so far was from the FIRST page i
> listed above (or from a Live CD), then you probably SHOULD select the
> repair on _this_ page
> <http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Step_3:_Installation_Mode>
> because i think it _will_ fix your system...probably...anyway, you
> have nothing to loose because it should not touch your ALREADY
> BACKED-UP mp3 collection.
>
> if it doesn't do a good repair, when you get to this page the next
> time through you can check "New Installation" and it will STILL see
> the current one, AND that your /home is on a separate partition from
> your system and it will ask if you want to keep your current home...if
> you say yes (AND if your music collection is in your /home, (and not
> somewhere outside of home....like on a Windows Partition) it *will* be
> safe--HOWEVER, it is always best to BACKUP before you wish you
> had!!...i highly recommend you do that before anything other than read
> my caveat, below..
>
> oh, and did i mention backup?
>

I fixed it. I did a normal install and under partitioning it only wanted
to format the root partition and set a mount point for the /home
directory. All was saved, GoogleEarth even still worked. So other
applications need reinstalling like Pan, Opera and I guess stuff that
dumps files in the root partition.
There WAS a problem making the SAME account as the /home/user directory
already existed the account creation failed. Had to log in as root and
use yast to recreate the account. All mp3's saved..
Thanks for the help.

DenverD · External Since: Jul 26, 2009 Posts: 19

> Yes, I have a 20 gig root partition on this 400 gig drive, the rest is
> the home partition. The winblows stuff is on another drive, is that safe?
> If you can't depend on an os to write only to the root partition it's
> pretty worthless don't you think?

that is the strategy which Redmond uses....training wheels..

here, you can do anything you wish...including blowing away the whole
shebang intentionally through design, or accidentally through
ignorance of the system, how it works and how to control it..

it is far from worthless, in fact it is priceless..

however, your ability to drive it remains an open question..

when you get to this step in the DVD install
<http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local#Step_6:_Setting_up_your_disk>
you will be _offered_ the install scripts suggested partitioning
scheme based on what it sees on the disk and your previous selections..

believe it or NOT, i've seen folks _accept_ the suggested plan even
though written in RED it said it was gonna format this and
that....and, then bitch because 'it' wiped my daddy's really important
stuff and i'm be in big trouble when mama gets home--how could 'it' do
that to _me_!!!

--
see caveat: http://tinyurl.com/6aagco
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315) via Thunderbird 3.0.1-1.1, KDE 3.5.7,
openSUSE Linux 10.3, 2.6.22.19-0.3-default #1 SMP i686 athlon