Reinstall over LVM

[Roger]

On 27/08/13 15:21, Rejy M Cyriac wrote:
> On 08/27/2013 10:17 AM, Roger wrote:
>> On 27/08/13 14:04, Rejy M Cyriac wrote:
>>> On 08/27/2013 08:04 AM, Roger wrote:
>>>> Is it possible to do a re installation of Fedora 19 where the file
>>>> system is LVM on a 2nd partition on my hard drive without losing files
>>>> in the /home directory structure?
>>>> There was a discussion about this some time ago but I didn't take much
>>>> notice then.
>>>> TIA
>>>> Roger
>>> You can re-install, as long as you maintain the same LVM structure in
>>> partitioning, and you can retain files if do not choose to reformat the
>>> logical volume for '/home'
>>>
>> Thank you rmc.
>> No reason to change the LVM.
>> This however begs another question.
>> The installation was originally Fedora 18 which I upgraded to Fed19. I'm
>> guessing all the apps and installed files, like inkscape, scribus, etc
>> are in the /root part of the LVM aka /sbin /bin /usr /etc and so on --
>> is this correct?
>> Can I format only the /boot and /swap, will all those installed apps
>> remain intact, and be accessible as before?
>> TIA
>> Roger
>>
> You had said that you need to re-install F19. That usually means you
> want to re-install all the packages that come with the Operating System,
> and the best accompaniment to that is re-formatting the root filesystem.
> Just re-formatting the '/boot'/ and 'swap' partitions during re-install
> of the Operating System may have different end results depending on what
> packages you choose during the re-install.
>
> So the question now arises on why you need to re-install Fedora. Would
> your objective be attained with just re-installing packages that you
> have some issues with ? Also, the user specific customisations of most
> of the applications reside as dot files in the user's home directory, so
> re-formatting the root filesystem, and re-installing all the
> applications will not impact those customisations, as long as you do not
> reformat the home partition. On the other hand, if you are running any
> servers, you may need to backup their configuration files before the
> re-install, and put them back in after.
>
My problem is the /boot partition. it is empty.
I was installing the nvidia driver following some instructions and right 
at the last instant made an error so while everything is really in it's 
place, the system is useless.
No servers, it's a home desktop development system.
Roger