Linux crash and reinstall???

jaxx · 2006-11-06 21:20:25

Hello to everyone. I have a question. Is it true that if Linux (anykind) crashes then you have to reinstall it again to get it to work??

jaxx

harlekin · 2006-11-06 21:26:03

What do you mean by crash?

As I used Suse (many years ago) I was quite in charge to let my pc crash. I never had to reinstall. Just reboot worked. But I don't know if you could say Linux crashed if X Server freezes. What do you mean by crash?

Anyway, I cannot believe that it should be true but I have no idea.

jaxx · 2006-11-06 21:29:54

Like you can't do anything anymore, in Windows you just reboot and everything is ok. Is it like that with Linux? USually people say that their PC Crashed.

Excuse my English if you see any mistakes, im from Estonia

sarah31 · 2006-11-06 22:02:15

Well my experience was the only reason I had to reinstall was because I made an error while root and essentially locked myself out of the system or crippled it.

As user I never had any problems that forced me to reinstall. I never had a crash that killed my system and forced to reinstall.

In my experience with most OSes is that reinstalling is a inexperienced user's fix and should rarely be required unless you just refuse to learn your OS.

hightower · 2006-11-06 22:03:20

Hi,

"the linux folks" also say crash, I think harlekin misunderstood you because he was surprised by your question. If Linux really crashes (there are some "tricks" to have a proper shutdown although the system seems to have crashed) you can reboot and everything should be / is alright.

Of course there is the risk of loosing data, but this risk isn't higher than on any other platform (windows, etc.)

So this reinstalling thing is a myth, imo.

hightower

jaxx · 2006-11-06 22:06:23

Ok thank you everyone for the help, i will still check this topic sometimes for new posts . THansk again.

dedhart · 2006-11-07 02:01:56

I have had to reinstall several times but that is usually because I did something stupid as root. Anyways I highly recomend any linux user to keep a copy of knoppix (or livecd distro of your choice) around for just such an emergency because oftentimes you can use it to save data or even your entire system.

hotsauce · 2006-11-07 04:27:09

I visited Tallinn this summer and was very surprised/happy to see their laptop they lent to guests was running on linux (suse/firefox).

Was nice and very functionnal.

noriko · 2006-11-07 13:48:52

that is simply not true.. i've been using linux for a little over a year anf half now, it's never crashed or become unstable..

i have however crashed the X server on many occasions...

[tip] if u are ever unlucky enough to have (a so-called-crash) .. a simple test would be to press one of the [lock-keys][num/scroll/caps lock] if they work the system is still alive and is most likely to to an X server crash which is still pretty rare... in this case u can try killing it,
[ctrl]+[back_space]

d2_racing · 2007-06-06 02:53:43

You can always CHROOT and repair

KerowynM · 2007-06-15 03:10:09

I believe the "If linux crashes, you need to reinstall" misinformation dates back to the days of ext2. Without journaling, quite often a crash or power failure would cause severe data loss. Since the advent of ext3 linux has become much better in that regard. I have a better track record with ext3 then with either fat or ntfs. Ext2 was never kind to me.

nikron · 2007-06-15 04:09:09

The only time ever had to "reinstall" was when I screwed up partitioning. 100 GBS of swap, 1 GB of Arch. While even that is fixable, I didn't want to take the time.

klixon · 2007-06-15 07:06:35

d2_racing wrote:

You can always CHROOT and repair

You'd have a bit of a problem with that if you'd done this though:

# rm -rf /bin

(don't try this at home kids... (only at work )
pacman.static to the rescue!

Arch Linux

#1 2006-11-06 21:20:25

Linux crash and reinstall???

#2 2006-11-06 21:26:03

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#3 2006-11-06 21:29:54

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#4 2006-11-06 22:02:15

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#5 2006-11-06 22:03:20

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#6 2006-11-06 22:06:23

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#7 2006-11-07 02:01:56

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#8 2006-11-07 04:27:09

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#9 2006-11-07 13:48:52

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#10 2007-06-06 02:53:43

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#11 2007-06-15 03:10:09

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#12 2007-06-15 04:09:09

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

#13 2007-06-15 07:06:35

Re: Linux crash and reinstall???

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