<rphillips1951@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:492dnYPDn-2CskKiRVn-gQ@comcast.com...
> I have a P4 box with Mandrake 9.0 Prosuite installed and I want to upgrade
> it to a more up to date distro, I use the box for web prototypes (running
> APACHE, PHP, python etc), Samba, and for web surfing. How do I get the
new
> distro on and preserve the old configuration files and accounts/passwords
> from the MDK distro, assuming it is possible? Also, Which distro can best
> provide equivalent function? Why?


Well mandrake 9.2 will upgrade the system correctly.

If you use some other distribution, you cant 'retain' the configurations.


You can copy /etc , /var/, /home , somewhere and then look through it if
you get stuck for a config item, hopefully preserving all web pages + server
side stuff, users files, mail and stuff.

But putting all back is quite a procedure.

eg incoming mail files have to be owned by the correct user, and put back
into /var/spool/mail
eg web sites have to be added to the new httpd.conf, etc etc




On the new system, you need to make the /etc/passwd and /etc/group file
consistent with the old /etc/password and group file,

so that in the new file the username maps to the correct userid,
the new file has group names maps to the correct group id.

(two basic ways to do this,
1. make the new users and groups have the same user id in the new files ,
and find and fix any files installed by the new distribution which might
have to have their ownership change. This is probably the easiest way.


or 2. create the new users/groups with any id number, and then change the
ownership of any files from the old system as needed.

)