Corrupt Installer Errors??

users
#41

I started with Ubuntu with version 8.10, and have had each version since then. I generally find it easiest to do a clean install. One advantage of that is every 6 months I have a complete backup of my hard drive. The second advantage is it is very easy to do. Each program has its own hidden file under the home directory, such as .thunderbird, .mozilla, .filezilla, gimp-2.8, etc. Once the new install is completed, and you have the programs installed that you wish from the repository or the ppa, open each one one time to create the .whatever hidden file. Then simply delete that file and replace it with the backed up file, and you have all of your settings, e-mail, bookmarks, server settings for filezille, and everything exactly the way was. Very easy and very fast. Much, much, much faster than doing a clean install of Windows.

Don

#42

Don Myers wrote:

I started with Ubuntu with version 8.10, and have had each version
since then. I generally find it easiest to do a clean install. One
advantage of that is every 6 months I have a complete backup of my
hard drive. The second advantage is it is very easy to do. Each
program has its own hidden file under the home directory, such as
.thunderbird, .mozilla, .filezilla, gimp-2.8, etc. Once the new
install is completed, and you have the programs installed that you
wish from the repository or the ppa, open each one one time to create
the .whatever hidden file. Then simply delete that file and replace it
with the backed up file, and you have all of your settings, e-mail,
bookmarks, server settings for filezille, and everything exactly the
way was. Very easy and very fast. Much, much, much faster than doing a
clean install of Windows.

Why not just have a separate /home partition? That way, you don't have
to delete & replace the app files.

#43

Hi :slight_smile:  
Usually when you buy a desktop computer it already has Windows installed.  Then after a couple of years the machine has become old and slow and needs replacing so another Windows machine gets bought.  At no point does anyone install Windows, or at least not many people.  People usually just dispose of it and get a new one

By contrast, when you first start using Gnu&Linux the very first thing you have to do is install it.  Since very few people have any experience installing any Operating System that usually means learning a lot of very technical stuff very quickly.  None of which you will need to know after the system has been set-up.

Many people, such as Virgil, get stuck somewhere in the middle of the set-up&install process.  Just as they would be hopelessly lost if they tried to install Windows.  Actually with Windows they typically have a lot more trouble.  Also with Windows they would know that it's an unusual process and would probably seek help.  Whereas with Gnu&Linux they shy away from help because they want to get established a bit first before risking asking "stupid questions".

Of course that is exactly the wrong way around because once the system is set-up then it's just simple point&click all the way, just as it is when you have just bought a Windows machine from a shop.  About the only time you need help with a Gnu&Linux system is while you are first installing it!

Tim at Kracked Press is still very confused about most of the set-up&install process and has thoroughly weird, screwy, set-ups that i wouldn't wish on my worst enemy but despite that has been successfully using Gnu&Linux to do some quite amazing things that i wouldn't even dream of trying
Regards from 
Tom :slight_smile:

#44

.......snip......

I had my Ubuntu installed like I like it and did not want to wipe the
entire drive for the Vista to Win7 "upgrading". It takes a lot of work
to install Ubuntu 12.04, plus MATE d.e., and all of the packages I want
and setting up all of the printers and such just like it was before.
Then there are the endless amounts of updates that Ubuntu would do. So
I really do not like to wipe the drive just to install the newer version
of Windows.

At least it was not setting up my main desktop. When I replaced a bad
primary drive [/sda], it took over 15 hours to install, tweak, etc. all
of the packages, plus all of the files back from backups and STILL I am
finding that I missed a tweak or package.

Ever hear of Clonezilla?

#45

Assuming for the moment that you're not a slimy lying Microsoft trolling
fanboy, and assuming for the moment that you actually have been using
Linux since 2001, the question arises, if your that dissatisfied with
Linux, why are you still using it?

The fact that you use the generic term "linux" instead of citing which
distro plus your citation of incorrect facts makes me doubt that you have
ever used the software.

In short, you're one of the most inept trolls I've run across lately.

#46

Hi :slight_smile:
As James said it might well be better to make a separate partition for your /home.  It's easier to do that during the install process but this link can be handy if you want to try this post-install. 
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving
If the way you are doing it keeps working then you might as well stick to that but thee are other advantages to having a separate /home

The way Don is doing it doesn't work for a very few programs (such as Evolution (an alternative to Thunderbird&Lightning)) but does work for almost all afaik.  I used to do the same thing but since 2010 the upgrade process has been really, really smooth so i have often gone for that instead now.  I do occasionally do a fresh install onto the same machine but that is for other reasons (such as testing or just to get more practice or because my fiddling around has broken something i don't know how to fix and then want it back the way it was before i started fiddling).

I've even found that i can do a fresh install over the top of an existing one and that keeps all my settings&configs as long as i didn't format the partition during the install.  I have installed a 10.04 over the top of a 10.10 and then when i opened Firefox all the same tabs opened that i had left open in the 10.10.  Errr, my main reasoning there was to try to upgrade an unsupported version without having to use subsequent versions that were also unsupported.  By going backwards to the 10.04 LTS (LTS= Long Term Support) i was then able to upgrade LTS to LTS to get to the 12.04LTS.  Again Firefox remembered all my tabs.  Afterwards i realised i could have just done a fresh install of the 12.04 instead of using the 10.04LS as a stepping stone.  Hindsight is great isn't it! :wink:

Regards from 
Tom :slight_smile:

#47

People keep telling me to use a different /home partition, but I never do.

I keep most of my data in other partitions and drives though. Actually
I have run across one or two packages who do not let you go to the
/media folder to get to other partitions and drives. That was weird.

I use the LTS versions, so I will do a clean install when they come out,
or when I need to replace the /sda drive or some other issue that would
best be fixed with a clean install. The only problem is getting all of
my packaes, tweaks, and such, installed again. It took hours and hours
when I replaced my bad 1-TB /sda drive with a new 2-TB one. I still
find that I messed one or two from time to time. A month ago was the
drive replacement.

So unless there is an issue, I will not do another clean install for
Ubuntu till 14.04LTS.

As for backups, I have 6-TBs worth of drives and 6-TBs worth of USB
externals. I back up them on a regular basis. Well it takes a while
even when I backup the new or modified files. I use "rsync -aP" in the
terminal to do the backup of the drives.

Yes, having all the hiddem "dot" folders save to backup it improtant.
That is where things like emails and address books are located for
Thunderbird, or all the bookmarks and such are located for Firefox. The
problem is once in a while the packages decide to change where that
folder is located. LibreOffice went and placed their .libreoffice into
the .config folder a little while back, so the
/home/username/.libroffice folder is no longer used.

To be honest, I tried a 10.04LTS upgrade to 12.04LTS and it ended up
with a lot more file space used than it did for the clean install. For
some reason, some of the upgraded packages seem not to get rid of all of
their unneeded files. Then there are all of the Linux header and images
files save. I had over 30 of them before I did the clean install. That
took a lot of extra drive space. Since it seems that no of the older
version are removed, it can add up. That is another good reason to do a
clean install.

By-the-way
I run Ubuntu 12.04LTS with MATE for my desktop environment.

Now, I do have laptops that have Windows on them. There are some things
I need Windows for. Not many, but some. I stopped at Win7 though. I
hate Unity for Ubuntu, so why would I like Win8's tile desktop?

NOW
did you mean to imply that you backup you entire drive[s] only once
every 6 months? It sort of sounded that way. I assume you do an
incremented backup - like I do - on a regular basis. I do the
"important" files every few days or so. I do the other new/modified
ones every week or so. Now, if I had a 4th external drive, then I may
do a full/clean bancup of a drive, but I do not like to wipe a backup to
do so. Plus, for some reason, I am not in favor of just doing a
"overwrite" of all of the file on a disc. It the externals were in
NTFS, that would make the entire drive one big mess of fragments,
hundreds of thousands of them. So I tend not to want to do the same
procedure with an ext4 formatted drive.

#48

<snip>

Ha, Ha, Tom

I am not that confused, but I just have not done a lot of manual setups
or scripting on Linux, so a lot is "new" to me.

[What can you expect for a guy that had 3 strokes and not the time or
money to make my home, office, and equipment, the way I should have it.
tee hee tee hee.....]

Well, my setup is not to "screwy" either. It works for me. I just have
a lot of data and other files to deal with.

Yes, I have been using Ubuntu for a few years now. BUT I do not have
any good book on it or Linux in general. Yes, I tend to use a GUI for
my use and not do much in the command line. I learn what I need, when I
need it. I just do not have time to "pay around" with different
commands and packages just to learn how to do more.

I run Ubuntu with MATE desktop, plus some basic [default] KDE packages.
I just find the packages that work for me and use them.

I have 3 drives and one has 3 partitions. /sda has the /home and OS
partition, plus two data partitions. Then the other two drives are a
single partition each. I have a "mess" inside the system due to issues
with the power cabling and such that came with the desktop. But that
can only be fixed with a new power supply and maybe a new motherboard
and case.

ALSO, I have to have half of my living room as my home/office. One wall
is full of shelves of network printers, paper, and most everything else
I need for my home/office use.

Yes, I would love to have an office that did not look a little like a
mad scientist's laboratory, but you have to take what you get and can
afford. [anyone need a mad scientist's monster made for them? well the
transportation might be the issue since villagers tend to want to us
torches every time they see the "thing" heading to the airport.]

#49

Kracked_P_P---webmaster wrote:

People keep telling me to use a different /home partition, but I never do.

When you do your next upgrade, get another drive for /home and use the
original for everything else. Then copy your entire /home directory to
the new drive. When you install the next version, you can specify the
mount point for home, but do not format it. Go from there and you're
done. If you don't want to install another drive, just create the
separate partition when upgrading and copy your data back to it. On my
computer, I have a 160 GB /home and 60 GB for everything else.

#50

The advantage of the repository is when a new version is released, it
will automatically be updated and only one version is on the machine.

The version in repository is fixed for the distribution release and never updated. There is no any advantage in this. The absurd requirement to download different kind of packages containing exactly the same files bring all the advantages down to nil.

#51

"Robert Holtzman":

The fact that you use the generic term "linux" instead of citing which
distro .... ....

In 2001 I used Mandrake Odyssey 7.

#52

"MirosławZalewski":

Perhaps these are reasons why most modern operating systems (Mac OS X,
iOS, Windows 8, Android) have "stores" built-in, which essentially
**are** repositories.

They are as different from Linux repositories as it can get. There is only one appstore for all clients and it always have the recent version of the software.

#53

And there is only one official repository for each Linux
distributions*. If you treat all Linux distributions as one "operating
system", then you are mistaken.

There is nothing in repository concept that would prevent inclusion of
the most recent version of software, even on the day of release. If
repository do not contain newest version of software, it's always due
to politics or lack of manpower.
And if you are unhappy with internal politics of your distribution,
perhaps you should try another one?

Also it should be noted that in Android and iOS world, repository is
often the only viable way to distribute your software among your users.
Therefore, software vendors approach repository administration to
include their software and the day software package hit repository is
considered official "release date".
In Linux world, software vendors release their software by other means,
such as personal webpages, source repositories and third-party sites.
They often don't care about inclusion of software in repositories and
most certainly do not coordinate releases with administrators of
repositories.

* Repositories are often split into branches, so it might appear
  that there are few of them; but as long as you can switch between
  branches with relative ease, I think we can talk about single
  repository.

Yes, repositories in Windows/Mac/Android/iOS differ considerably to
repositories in Linux. But these differences are always political,
institutional, social or psychological, never technical.

#54

Kracked_P_P---webmaster wrote:

People keep telling me to use a different /home partition, but I never do.

When you do your next upgrade, get another drive for /home and use the
original for everything else.  Then copy your entire /home directory to
the new drive.  When you install the next version, you can specify the
mount point for home, but do not format it.  Go from there and you're
done.  If you don't want to install another drive, just create the
separate partition when upgrading and copy your data back to it.  On my
computer, I have a 160 GB /home and 60 GB for everything else.

#55

False

#56

​Paul, given what our friend «Urmas»​
​ has previously posted to this forum - and to the AOO forum as well - I'd
suggest that truth values are not his/her primary concern....

Henri​

#57

Most definitely, but I felt it should be stated "for the record".

#58

Hi :slight_smile:  
I once read an amusing article "If operating systems were airplanes".  I couldn't find the one i read but managed to pluck these bits from Zyra's mad website.

Mac Airlines
All the stewards, captains, baggage handlers, and ticket agents are all friendly and attractive but all look and act exactly the same.  Every time you ask questions about details, you are gently but firmly told that you don't need to know, don't want to know, and everything will be done for you without your ever having to know.

Windows Air
The terminal is pretty and colourful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off.  After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.

Linux Air
When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. 
Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful.  You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do what with the seat?"

I think nowadays exploding is less likely but when i replaced it with "suddenly has to land and take off again" it stopped being so amusing.  
Regards from 
Tom :slight_smile:

#59

"Tom Davies":

Usually when you buy a desktop computer it already has Windows installed. Then after a couple of years the machine has become old and slow and needs replacing so another Windows machine gets bought. At no point does anyone install Windows, or at least not many people.

I believe that about 50% Windows users not only installed it themselves or got it installed, but even cracked it afterward. See? People do risk themselves to get a quality product, and 'free' Linux is not required.

#60

"Paul":

False

*What* is false? There are two 250MB packages of LibreOffice differing in extension only. That's ridiculous.

Which distro updates software in repositories?