From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 18080 invoked from network); 5 Oct 2004 03:46:04 +0000 Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (156.56.111.197) by lists.gentoo.org with AES256-SHA encrypted SMTP; 5 Oct 2004 03:46:04 +0000 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([156.56.111.196] helo=parrot.gentoo.org) by smtp.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.41) id 1CEgH5-000092-S8 for arch-gentoo-alpha@lists.gentoo.org; Tue, 05 Oct 2004 03:46:03 +0000 Received: (qmail 11327 invoked by uid 89); 5 Oct 2004 03:46:03 +0000 Mailing-List: contact gentoo-alpha-help@gentoo.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org Received: (qmail 17199 invoked from network); 5 Oct 2004 03:46:02 +0000 Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 23:45:15 -0400 From: Allen Ziegenfus To: gentoo-alpha@lists.gentoo.org Message-Id: <20041004234515.0bb2a1d9.listmail@allenz.net> In-Reply-To: <4161FDC8.3070903@videotron.ca> References: <4161FDC8.3070903@videotron.ca> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.12 (GTK+ 1.2.10; alpha-unknown-linux-gnu) X-Face: #>N7,>[5Z9X](#sm(,wF@jX=W}2[`G<+e=[.}.|P$yA=P+wM1mmB_l'1-HYWE=*%izspep7VuYZDg6*|D(]RbMg!WmP,@oSfxXyUQkcHU;r]f|a[V.!3[(q9klaB$_*E-[_4gv7%N'"qV\L]zZN=iO+,s-l)Z'AE`Ye\MZ\ Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-ELNK-Trace: d436f0f761fced6c139e2f5882df9b640a9da525759e26543923cac38937f35983effa511f35f6a1547562a158a8cca8350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c X-Originating-IP: 69.3.83.23 Subject: Re: [gentoo-alpha] Disk image? and other general questions X-Archives-Salt: 052d04d0-7319-4804-8cf0-727dc53d3df5 X-Archives-Hash: f3aa5da0136380104122bee26d2fa79a On the fine day of Mon, 04 Oct 2004 21:50:00 -0400 Jean-S=E9bastien Guay said very eloquently: > I have an Alpha XL currently running Debian. I would like to see how=20 > Gentoo works on it, but I would especially like to have the option to=20 > back out and go back to my running system if it doesn't work (or I > don't like it, though I doubt that frankly).=20 You can do a drive image as someone else already commented. What works really well for me is to use an extra partition or hard drive for the secondary OS that you are trying out. That way you never are overwriting your main OS so you don't have to worry about losing it. And you can jump back to your normal configuration by just booting into that partition instead.=20 I always try and remember when partioning a disk to leave an empty 3-4 gig partition for this purpose. It really comes in handy. Also if you do things this way it's also possible to install gentoo from the other OS (using chroot), so you always have access to the web, etc. while you are building the gentoo system. Then your main system is not down for any long length of time. There's some documentation about this on gentoo's site; I believe it's in the"alternative installation howto". I just went through this with rebuilding my Alpha gentoo installation. If you want any more details let me know. > Also, somewhat unrelated -- How does Gentoo handle configuration > files?=20 There's an app that let's you interactively merge the changes. It's not fancy (it's just text based) but it sounds more flexible than what you are talking about with debian.=20 AZ--=20 -- gentoo-alpha@gentoo.org mailing list