Reinstall over LVM

[Rejy M Cyriac]

On 08/27/2013 12:02 PM, Roger wrote:
> 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
> 
If it is just the '/boot' partition, you could probably copy over the
contents from a similar system, regenerate grub config file, and
re-install grub stage 1 if required.

Or you could boot into rescue mode from ISO, have partitions mounted,
chroot to installed system filesystems, and reinstall associated
packages - like kernel, grub2, grub2-tools ...pretty hard way...

I have not tried out either methods, so cannot guarantee they will work. ;-)

What I know will work is - take back-up of '/home' and wherever you have
data, reinstall entire OS without re-formatting '/home'. Put back any
data missing :-)

Best way would have been to take back-ups before tinkering with the
'/boot' filesystem. But it is easier to see that in hind-sight....

-- 
Regards,

Rejy M Cyriac (rmc)