Can I Install Arch from Ubuntu 10.10 and Preserve Partitions & Data?

SedaliaSteve · 2011-03-26 23:08:54

I'm a rather frustrated Ubuntu user right now. I have a Shuttle XPC that I used the alternate Ubuntu desktop install a few years ago. I got this as a music server. It has the 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller which Ubuntu supported not at all. I eventually made it work by scrubbing every bit of pulseaudio and using OSS and it worked great. Hundreds of hours of FLAC's being served.

I made the mistake of upgrading and found OSS deprecated. In 10.04 I couldn't get any audio and in 10.10 I get crappy analog.

The reason I'm here is that the OSS page suggested this Linux. I'm wed to Linux, not Ubuntu and I think they abandoned a great system in OSS.

If I download the distro of Arch, can it maintain most of my system? I mean partitions, filesystems amd data? If so it would be worth it.

Steve

litemotiv · 2011-03-26 23:16:20

Welcome to the forums Steve. Do you have separate partitions for home and/or data? If so, then it shouldn't be a problem.

SedaliaSteve · 2011-03-26 23:33:31

I just did two partitions, a main and a swap. The main has a bunch of filesystems. The only thing strange about this is that it is a RAID 1 and the two drives have a lot of data I want preserve. If Arch works like a Ubuntu upgrade all of this would be preserved. I'm just checking that Arch can work this way.

Steve

Inxsible · 2011-03-27 00:04:20

If you have only 2 partitions main and swap -- then you CANNOT have bunch of filesystems on main. Each partition can have 1 filesystem. I am not sure what you mean.

Arch is a different OS than Ubuntu, so you will have to install Arch from scratch, for which you will need partitions.

Having said that, if you drive has enough free space, you can install Arch in the free space (by creating partitions - that you would need) and then moving your current data on to the partitions (you just created) and then merging the old ubuntu partitions in to the Arch partitions once your data has been moved. You will need to have sufficient free space however.

if you don't have sufficient free space, its better to get another drive to back up your data before you install Arch.

SedaliaSteve · 2011-03-27 01:46:44

Inxsible wrote:

If you have only 2 partitions main and swap -- then you CANNOT have bunch of filesystems on main. Each partition can have 1 filesystem. I am not sure what you mean..

Sorry. It is '/' with the root. I just created lots of directories that I thought were filesystems. Just checked.

Inxsible wrote:

Arch is a different OS than Ubuntu, so you will have to install Arch from scratch, for which you will need partitions.
Having said that, if you drive has enough free space, you can install Arch in the free space (by creating partitions - that you would need) and then moving your current data on to the partitions (you just created) and then merging the old ubuntu partitions in to the Arch partitions once your data has been moved. You will need to have sufficient free space however.
if you don't have sufficient free space, its better to get another drive to back up your data before you install Arch.

I do have a spare drive I could use to save all that data. Arch does look like a better choice than the other option of rolling back several versions of Ubuntu. I'd be stuck in the past with no upgrade. Also the Canonical folks frown on downgrading so it isn't so easy and from what I see I'd have to do an fresh install to get back. It looks like Alsa will be awhile supporting Intel ICH9 and OSS has been doing it for years.

It will take a bit of time to stick the extra disk in my machine and back it up. I'll have time to check Arch out and see what is there. I chiefly got this computer for the HD digital. It has a repository of 100's of CD's in FLAC format with an optical SPDIF interface to a stereo and Songbird to play it. It has a sort of mirror of that as MP3 on a sambha windows share for a Mac, a couple of Windoze laptops and a Ubuntu netbook to access. While I was at it I added more sambha shares for backup data for everybody.

Steve

ANOKNUSA · 2011-03-27 03:02:26

If you search around, you can find guides on create a separate /home partition on a current install.

xiaq · 2011-03-27 03:19:57

Arch uses a different package system so the software must be installed from scratch - that is, programs and data in in /usr, /bin, /lib cannot be preserved. (In theory it is possible, but in practice it's too tedious to migrate software from one package management system to another.)

Most of the time, what you really need to (and can) preserve is the data in /home - your personal files and configuration files. If you choose to install a desktop environment similiar to your original system (GNOME for this Ubuntu case), hopefully it will look nearly the same as before, as all your personal configuration files are stored in places like ~/.gconf, ~/.gnome2. The most common problems you may run into are GNOME complaining some autostart programs don't exist, and GNOME panel complaining some panel plugins don't exist, things like that. Just install the missing components (or if you no longer need them or simply don't know what they are, just remove them from your configuration) and everything will be ok.

So, backup your /home and install Arch from scatch. Make /home a separate partition this time. Also remember to create a user with the same login name and uid. Good luck

Last edited by xiaq (2011-03-27 03:26:19)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-26 23:08:54

Can I Install Arch from Ubuntu 10.10 and Preserve Partitions & Data?

#2 2011-03-26 23:16:20

Re: Can I Install Arch from Ubuntu 10.10 and Preserve Partitions & Data?

#3 2011-03-26 23:33:31

Re: Can I Install Arch from Ubuntu 10.10 and Preserve Partitions & Data?

#4 2011-03-27 00:04:20

Re: Can I Install Arch from Ubuntu 10.10 and Preserve Partitions & Data?

#5 2011-03-27 01:46:44

Re: Can I Install Arch from Ubuntu 10.10 and Preserve Partitions & Data?

#6 2011-03-27 03:02:26

Re: Can I Install Arch from Ubuntu 10.10 and Preserve Partitions & Data?

#7 2011-03-27 03:19:57

Re: Can I Install Arch from Ubuntu 10.10 and Preserve Partitions & Data?

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