Comments on: Before Switching Your Linux Distro

By: dpeirce

dpeirce — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:37:01 +0000

I believe it’s safer to delete your old home directory when changing distros and even versions of the same distro, because too often the old config file messes uo the new install. Instead, create a separate partition containing all your data files and other files like your Opera bookmarks or your tomboy files. Then make symlinks to the appropriate places in your new home directory and you get your old data back. It’s also possible this way to run several distros in parallel and, so long as the UID# and user name is the same, switch back and forth among distros while retaining all the bookmarks, data files, and tomboy files.

By: LeBokov

LeBokov — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:49:36 +0000

Thanks for your advice. It’s good to know that deleting the .gnome or .kde files would do the trick. However, I have had instance where after installing a different distro, my firefox wouldn’t start until I deleted the .mozilla folder. So it makes me feel safer by deleting all the hidden files and folders.

By: lefty.crupps

lefty.crupps — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:40:18 +0000

Generally if you delete the .gnome or .kde files/folders and log out and in again, they’ll be reset to the distro’s default. Meaning, you likely didn’t need to reinstall to get it working. Its a great “trick” to be able to reset the u7ser’s config like that, very simple. As it should be.