Frank Mandato wrote:
>  I have been following this list for quite a while and would like to 
> know if I have to start from scratch, clean install, or if I can just 
> switch over to Fedora without too many problems.

This discussion is close to what I have to do.

I will probably go to a fresh install of either Fedora or
Gentoo.  The YMMV discussion made the point that 15 months
is a long time in Linux desktop development, and I want
to try an update system other than RPM.

I have gobs of data I need to preserve, but none of it
involves setup details:  my system and preferences are
pretty much what the RH8 install left me with, so starting
over will be just fine.

I need to restructure my /root filesystem, so a fresh install
makes sense.  Right now it's a monolith including /etc,
/boot, /var and more, and I think this is causing some
problems -- fsck puts me into manual mode about every two
months to clean up lost+found.  I think the root filesystem
gets too much activity, and this is aggravated by my frequent
reboots coming over from Windows.

Please let me know what kind of risks may go with this
approach to a system rebuild:

1.  Make sure all the random data I want to keep is in my
other partitions, safely away from root.

2.  Collect all the device-oriented config info I can find,
e.g. my X configuration and the names of all the devices RH8
has identified for me.  Also save my fstab as an example,
and info on my dhcp setup.

Does Gentoo do a reasonable job in detecting and setting up
X, the network card, dhcp, and some other common issues?
I've heard that Fedora setup is pretty good.  As a hacker,
I am attracted to the greater transparency of Gentoo.

3.  Boot up using the CD for my new distro.  I have missed
all the discussion of Knoppix, does that come into play
here?  I have found my RH8 install CD to be very effective
in rescue mode, for tinkering with Grub, etc.  Would I find
the same with an ISO for Fedora or Gentoo?

4.  Re-partition /root into the customary set of functional
partitions.

5.  Go through the install.

A Linux install should not tromp on the other partitions
where I left my old stuff.  Right?  Do I need to take any
steps to ensure this, so these partitions will be ignored
until I add them to my fstab?

Thanks,

Vic