From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Dec 7 15:34:05 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id PAA03308 for questions-outgoing; Sun, 7 Dec 1997 15:34:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions) Received: from zipper.zip.com.au (sue@zipper.zip.com.au [203.12.97.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id PAA03270 for ; Sun, 7 Dec 1997 15:33:59 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from sue@welearn.com.au) Received: from localhost (sue@localhost) by zipper.zip.com.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id KAA06756 for ; Mon, 8 Dec 1997 10:32:49 +1100 X-Authentication-Warning: zipper.zip.com.au: sue owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 10:32:47 +1100 (EST) From: Sue Blake X-Sender: sue@zipper.zip.com.au To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Frying pan to fire? Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk I have some decisions to make before upgrading to 2.2.5 CD (and commencing a permanent modem Internet connection). I seek your advice, RTFM pointers, reassurance or spanking. Failing that I'll muddle on as usual :-) === Hardware: sd0 2gb, pretty fast dos; extended; NTFS; 1gb FreeBSD 2.2.2 (CD, upgraded from 2.2.1) sd1 1gb, fast enough linux only sd2 500mb slow as old Bill FAT logical drives for data storage. No good backup facilities (sd2 FAT, floppies, ancient brain-dead Archive Viper, paper) Wetware: 1 year FreeBSD, more experience installing it than using it :-) Extensive DOS experience. Very keen to read manuals if and only if I have the prerequisite knowledge that they assume. Partition Magic available. IBM boot manager working. Intention: Get rid of Linux, gain 1gb. Upgrade to 2.2.5 CD and configure for new permanent modem connection. Solve chronic disk space shortage, particularly for X apps and /usr generally. Make room to install sources if they're a good thing to have around (why? how much space required?). For now the system will be used by me and a few friends foes and family, for web site development, man page reading, and lots of email. === She's gonna do... what?! I could perhaps leave the 2.2.2 alone, it works, my data's there, and install 2.2.5 on the Linux drive, make a fresh start, copy old stuff over as required, and later on reformat and acquire the extra 1 gb space from sd0. A sloppy but comfortable method initially. Later I'll need to know how to reformat and incorporate the old 2.2.2 drive into a working 2.2.5. Alternatively I could upgrade the working 2.2.2 on sd0 to 2.2.5, pulling in sd1 at the same time. This seems to be the Right Thing To Do. I'm concerned that the last upgrade was not perfect, losing the use of some existing stuff in bin. Posts here mentioned the loss of ps but my ps works fine, I lost killall and which and a couple of others, and for some reason I couldn't follow the remedy given for ps. Maybe an upgrade will fix this anyway? I'm not sure whether I ended up using the correct set of /etc files, the instructions on this seemed ambiguous to me, so I flipped a coin and edited them into submission :-) If I take the upgrade-and-kidnap-linux-disk route, is this humanly possible and how should I organise things? Putting swap over on sd1 makes sense (64mb RAM, 130mb swap) but will it be obvious to me how to get rid of the old swap during installation? Does it still make sense if /usr is on the same disk? I like playing with different software, some quite large, eg. tex and emacs and star office would be nice but won't fit, nor will FreeBSD sources. I could put all of /usr on the new disk leaving /home (already separate) on the old, or I could just put X11 stuff and leave /home on the new disk. Unless there's big performance or impossibility issues. Sure, many of these decisions are largely dependent on my use and preferences, but I need at least to be pointed at the smorgasbord, and shown where the sharp knives are. And the kernel. I like my funny little kernel the way it is. Can I simply take the old config file and rebuild it under 2.2.5 without brain input? Phew! Take your pick. Any comments muchly appreciated. If I disappear... you'll know I'm learning a lot :-) Regards, -*Sue*- sue@welearn.com.au