Install with existing partitions


Forum: HD Install
Topic: Install with existing partitions
started by: Zill

Posted by Zill on June 14 2008,16:57
I have previously used Xubuntu and so have the following partition table on my hdd:
/dev/sda1 / reiserfs
/dev/sda5 none swap
/dev/sda6 /home reiserfs

I now wish to install DSL and, although I am happy to delete the old OS on sda1, I would like to keep the reiserfs format.

I also wish to retain existing data in my current /home and mount this as the dsl /home.

Is this easy to achieve with the DSL installer and, if so, how?

TIA.

Posted by curaga on June 14 2008,17:29
Using reiserfs - sure, just say no to "format to ext2/3"
To use your /home you would need to twingle a bit, aka add it to fstab.

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on June 14 2008,18:00
Or use the home= cheatcode?  You may have to play around with your files in /home though, since some files will be different and probably best to be overwritten, etc. (from /etc/skel I suppose)
Posted by lucky13 on June 14 2008,19:02
You'll need to tweak your fstab manually. If you're not too picky and just want to access the data on the other partition, you can let DSL install as normal, use its /home mounted on /, and then set a mount point in $HOME (/home/dsl/data) and mount the other (old home) partition there. I do that so I can access the same files between distros (and BSD). That would also solve the problem of config files hats mentioned.

(cleaned up and clarified)

Posted by Zill on June 14 2008,19:41
Quote (curaga @ June 14 2008,22:29)
Using reiserfs - sure, just say no to "format to ext2/3"...

As my old OS will still be there would I still need to manually delete the old OS first as sda1 apparently cannot be reformatted with reiserfs by DSL?

Posted by Zill on June 14 2008,19:45
Thanks for all the useful tips.  I will have to experiment a bit with the /home directory to see what works best for me.
Posted by curaga on June 15 2008,09:34
Yes, DSL doesn't have the tools for reiserfs, just kernel support, so you could either delete from DSL or format from another livecd.
Posted by Zill on June 15 2008,09:43
Thanks for the clarification, curaga.

My thanks to all for the helpful replies.

Posted by mikshaw on June 15 2008,13:15
DSL won't boot from reiserfs (as far as my experiences have shown).  You will need to format the root partition to ext.  You can continue to use reiserfs on the home partition, though.
Posted by Zill on June 15 2008,22:22
Quote (mikshaw @ June 15 2008,13:15)
DSL won't boot from reiserfs (as far as my experiences have shown).  You will need to format the root partition to ext.  You can continue to use reiserfs on the home partition, though.

Thanks for the tip mikshaw - I will reformat root if necessary.

Posted by curaga on June 16 2008,08:49
That could be solved easily by adding the reiserfs module to initrd and having it loaded
Posted by mikshaw on June 17 2008,12:46
I guess it depends on your definition of "easily". If I person has no experience or knowledge of how to modify initrd (me, for example), the person would first need to learn that.  In that case, assuming the person has previous experience with formatting partitions, it would be easier to format.

The result of a format to ext, however, would not be ideal if you tend to prefer reiser (again, that would be me).  So...now that you mentioned it, I have this sudden need to do a forum search.....

....and after a quick search it seems that including reiserfs in the initrd may actually be easier than formatting, or pretty close.

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