What do I lose? <solved>

[donvan1]

I've not been able to resolve my on again off again streaming audio problem (see "something broke my streaming audio" in an earlier post) so I am considering reinstalling PCLOS on my machine over the existing copy. What am I likely to lose? What should I backup. I realize that if this is a hardware problem reinstalling wont help but an earlier version of PCLOS (KDE3.5 on a different drive which I select from the bios as bootable) works fine. I believe that I have somehow corrupted my current KDE4.5 installation. I am hoping that installation will resolve the problem. If anyone has advise on this please advise me. It is frustrating to never be sure that the streaming audio will work.  

[Taco.22]

You can reinstall your system without losing data if your /home is on a separate partition.  You probably have a / partition (or root), a swap and then /home.  If this is the case backup your data from the various folders in your /home folder - pictures, documents, music etc.  In your file manager there will be an option to view hidden files.  These are files with the prefix .filename.  Put a . in front of a file name and you render it invisible.  Backup your browser and email folders.  You may want to rename them by spelling "dot" so you can see them on the backup medium!  You may also want to save wallpaper from /usr/share/wallpaper if you have customized these.

Boot from your live disc, and pay attention to the partition/format process.  You will use existing partitions.  Don't change them.  The default is to format just the / partition and not /home.  Make sure the /home partition is unchecked.  Then go ahead with the install.  On reboot enter your root password and the same user details from before.  This should launch you into a familiar session.

Be aware of course that you now only have a base install - any extra software you had installed is now gone.  However the .files and.folders in your home folder still have the preferences etc, so when you reinstall software, for eg. Inkscape, all its added brushes and plugins will still be there.  The same applies to Firefox and Thunderbird, or what ever apps you use for that - bookmarks, emails and network settings should just work.  You may need to readjust your monitor resolution though.

Good luck, and just keep an eye on the format checkboxes.  If you think it wasn't right, you can just cancel the install and restart the process.     
 

[kjpetrie]

Don't forget to use the current ISO for installing, otherwise you will not necessarily be able to upgrade and even if you can the downloads will be more than the ISO.

[T6]

if possible, external backups of your important files is a better approach

sometimes format the wrong partition is so easy, better have a backup to save the day, in fact, keep backups of your files is very important, all the time

[Was_Just19]

If you have not done so, create a new user and use that for a while before reinstalling --- it may be some config problem in the user account that is causing the problem and reinstalling while retaining /home will not fix that.

......  you may of course have already tried that .....

[donvan1]

Yes I have tried logging on as another user but to no avail. I have as instructed reloaded PCLOS2010.12 created from the downloaded iso file using k3b...the md5 sum was correct.  I did find some of the changes mentioned above but all in all it seems to have left my home directory intact.  I had to reinstall Skype and the Chromium browser using Synaptic. However, I still have some sound issues as indicated in my earlier post. Upon trying to play a local video file using VLC media player I noted an error message indicating that my sound card might not be there (even tho it played the video correctly with sound). I may have some kind of timing issue but no idea how to correct it.

[horusfalcon]

About the hidden file thing Taco.22 mentions:  from a terminal, ls -a will display all files in a folder, even hidden ones.  From KDE-4, in Dolphin, click View in the menu, then select (click) Show Hidden Files to display all the files.

I'm with T6 on this one, though - nothing beats a good backup plan.  Even if all you do is copy files to an external drive or to DVD, you know that if the worst happens you at least haven't pulled the hole you dug for yourself in on top of you, and can still climb out.

It might help to solve the problem if we knew what sound hardware was involved.  It may be that there is a solution that comes just short of reinstalling everything.  (It's worth a try, anyhow.)

Later On,
D

[donvan1]

I'm sorry if my last post was not clear...I have already done the reinstall....It didn't seem to help.

At one point I tried to load a local video file into the VLC player and got a momentary error message that my audio card was missing, then it went ahead and worked correctly anyhow.

In the past when streaming video files had no audio neither did local files played in VLC.
I think it may be some timing issue with the sound card coming ready!  I just have no idea how to check that or change the timing mismatch between the card and software (ie firefox, VLC, etc.)

[Taco.22]

if possible, external backups of your important files is a better approach

I had thought that if one was backing up files, that was a given.  Otherwise what is the point of a backup?   

[Crow]

Please correct me if I'm wrong 

He is reinstalling BUT keeping Home. Is he keeping the configuration files that probably are causing the audio problem? 

I think a back up of the important files and a full reinstall is needed.

[Taco.22]

Is he keeping the configuration files that probably are causing the audio problem?

Ah, I see the issue.  If he doing a system reinstall but wants to keep /home, then what I described stands.  But if he wants to do a full install and start fresh, then he doesn't have to back up much more than I suggested.  It's only personal data, although I would also include things like the Gimp folder if I have a pile of added plugins etc, or VBox discs and so on.  I certainly wouldn't backup the entire /home partition because a) it could be huge, b) all those configuration files are recreated when the software is installed, and c) you may reintroduce a glitch. 

I am considering reinstalling PCLOS on my machine over the existing copy

This lead me to think that he wanted to save /home. Considering the circumstances a full clean install would probably be in order.

[Bald Brick]

donvan1,

When you back up your data before letting the installer format /home, don't forget to back up your emails too (if you want to keep them and if you have saved them locally). Unfortunately different email clients store them in different places.

[T6]

if possible, external backups of your important files is a better approach

I had thought that if one was backing up files, that was a given.  Otherwise what is the point of a backup?   

if you have two internal hard disks sometimes a backup can be done form one disk to another, is insecure but at least is a minimal measure that many pc users never consider as useful, forget external media

[donvan1]

Well, here goes....I replaced the old hard drive with a new one....I used my live cd 2010.12 (did a check of the cd first).

I installed PCLOS2010.12 from the verified cd (after I ran memtest for a while...just in case)

Opened FireFox and navigated to my webpage (oneplace.com)...opened one of the streaming audio links. No Audio.

Completely shut down my machine, rebooted and started again...this time it worked.

On my other hard drive (the one I switched out) when attempting to run a local video file in VLC I got the following:

"Potential ALSA version problem, VLC failed to initialize your sound output device(if any). Please update to version1.0.23-2-g8d80d5f or higher to try to fix this issue."  The odd thing was the video audio was working in VLC player under this error box! I believe I have the latest available ALSA file (as part of the 2010.12 live cd.) Also odd is, that I never had this problem until recently...maybe my sound card is failing, I sure hope not, it's on the motherboard. 

[T6]

if it is on the motherboard it is a integrated soundcard, poor quality hardware(same here)

a new soundcard should fix the problem, some cheap soundcards with realtek chipsets will work perfectly on linux

can you share that link to the streaming audio?(or any link from there does the same?)

i don't see the hardware you have and the kernel you are using, if it is older and if you use pulse audio

also if you have a video card with hdmi output