On Sunday 18 March 2018 05:24:01 William Morder wrote: > On Sunday 18 March 2018 05:02:19 E. Liddell wrote: > > On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 17:13:52 -0700 > > > > William Morder <doctor_contendo@...> wrote: > > > I would be curious to know what are other people's methods. I've heard > > > about some net installations already. > > > > Well, my response was shock that anyone would actually have to do that > > much work to reinstall the software on an existing system! I'd just > > issue something like "emerge --emptytree --keep-going world", go to bed, > > and expect 98% of everything to be resolved when I got back up in the > > morning. A Gentoo machine is always easier to recover than to restart > > from scratch (and yes, it's possible to switch out major parts of the > > infrastructure, like openrc <=> systemd and udev <=> eudev, without > > hosing everything or even having to reinstall any package that doesn't > > depend directly on the changed one). > > > > I kept my old system installation for twelve years (2005-2017), despite a > > major hardware refresh about midway through that period, and *never* had > > to start over from scratch. And the only reason I didn't just image the > > old root partition onto a new drive when I set up my current machine over > > Christmas was that I figured it was time to get rid of all the leftover > > cruft from more than a decade of rolling updates. > > > > E. Liddell > Ah, but you are an actual geek, and you like this stuff. And I did say that my method was dirty. The only reason I use computers at all is because I must; I build my own computers out of parts because I can't afford to buy anything; and I try to stick with GNU/Linux so that I can be sure that I really own my own computers. I've only been running Linux since about 2006, and mostly Kubuntu. Only in April of 2017 did I attempt Debian. Once I get a system more or less stable, I almost never need to do a full reinstallation. But then, I have pretty much taught myself, with the help of some Linux books, and researching the forums. And I only know one person in the real world (not online) who can actually offer guidance. Otherwise, most people think I am a computer freak, which I am not. If I ruled the world, we would all go back to horses and carts, or at least bicycles. I still say that this computer nonsense is just a passing fad, and sooner or later people will wake up. In the meanwhile, this is what I have to do to keep my computer running. I like what you say, and am always willing to bow before superior knowledge. If I could learn how to use your method on a Debian system, that would be great. If you can point me in the right direction, I am all ears. Bill P.S. How would you go about maintaining your computers if you sometimes are forced to go for months at a stretch without an Internet connection? Right now I have a fast, reasonably stable connection, but it hasn't always been that way. I started saving packages to reinstall by dpkg so that I could keep my system running even when I am offline. I used to go to the library with my laptop, to use their connection; but then I would download and save packages to be used in my desktop computer at home, where there was no Internet. If there is a better strategy for survival in those circumstances, I would love to hear it. > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > > trinity-users-unsubscribe@... For additional > > commands, e-mail: trinity-users-help@... Read list > > messages on the web archive: http://trinity-users.pearsoncomputing.net/ > > Please remember not to top-post: > > http://trinity.pearsoncomputing.net/mailing_lists/#top-posting > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > trinity-users-unsubscribe@... For additional > commands, e-mail: trinity-users-help@... Read list > messages on the web archive: http://trinity-users.pearsoncomputing.net/ > Please remember not to top-post: > http://trinity.pearsoncomputing.net/mailing_lists/#top-posting