Ubuntu

Reverse upgrade from jaunty

Asked by Claudio Moretti

I was trying Jaunty on a PC I didn't use, but now I need it as a production one. I don't want to lose my data and it becomes difficult for me to back them up. Can I reverse upgrade my system from Jaunty to Intrepid?

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Andy Ruddock
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marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#1

Which data do you want to save...? please tell the dir location...
Simply try to save them to an external drive... then restore them after installing Ubuntu 8.10

Thank you

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Claudio Moretti (flyingstar16) said : 		#2

I don't want to save data, i only want to reverse upgrade without losing data..
I don't have an external drive, so I can't save them now..
There's no way to reverse the upgrade? Something like "update-manager -d", but to use for reverse-upgrade? Or by changing /etc/apt/sources.list back to jaunty...

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Best Andy Ruddock (andy-ruddock) said : 		#3

Downgrading is not a simple process and not generally catered for, here's the method I've used in the past to install a different distro without losing data.
Please read the entire instructions, I can't take responsibility for your data.

I'm going to assume that you have a single hard-disk which is usually mounted via /dev/sda1.

1. Boot using a live distro, such as the Ubuntu live CD.
2. Mount your hard disk on /mnt
    mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
3. Create a directory /mnt/backup
    mkdir /mnt/backup
4. Move everything to this backup directory
    mv /mnt/* /mnt/backup
    (mv will refuse to cycle into /mnt/backup)
5. Boot from the install CD
6. When you come to the option to partition the disk use the current partitions
    ***** MAKE SURE YOU _DON'T_ FORMAT THE /dev/sda1 PARTITION *****
7. When you've finished you have a /backup directory which contains all your data from the previous install.

Use this information AT YOUR OWN RISK, read everything carefully and make sure you understand before making a mistake you can't back out from, measure twice and cut once.

If you break it, you get to keep all the pieces.

Good luck.

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marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#4

Or as additional method you can resize the Jaunty partitions and install Ubuntu 8.10 in dual boot then you can easy copy from Jaunty partition to Ubuntu 8.10 partition...

Hope this helps

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Claudio Moretti (flyingstar16) said : 		#5

Thanks Andy Ruddock, that solved my question.

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Claudio Moretti (flyingstar16) said : 		#6

Thanks, I hoped there would be a simplier way, such as purge-and-reinstall all packets after having updated apt with Intrepid repos... Well, if this is the only way I think I'll go and get an external HD, and then do a fresh install..
However, thanks guys..
I'll remember your answers :P