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On Sun, 2009-12-27 at 20:45 -0600, Dale wrote: |
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> Marcus Wanner wrote: |
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> > When an old (circa 2001) desktop came out of retirement a few months |
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> > ago, I shuffled across Linuxes trying to find something that worked |
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> > well, and finally hit on gentoo. I eventually switched to ~x86 because |
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> > I was tired of using versions of apps from 6 months ago... Too make a |
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> > long story short, I have a new computer now and that one is going back |
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> > into retirement. I may want to use it more in future and would like to |
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> > know how I would go about "mothballing" it so that if it ever needs to |
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> > be used again, bringing it up to date will be as smooth and painless |
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> > as possible. If I need to resurrect it, it will probably be at least a |
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> > year from now. What would you recommend? |
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> > |
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> > Marcus |
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> > |
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> > |
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> |
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> Portage is better but that is a while to go without a update. It mostly |
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> depends on what all is updated with some sort of hiccup between the time |
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> you shut it down and the time you try to update it again. If there is |
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> no major problems then it wouldn't be a issue but of there is multiple |
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> packages with issues, then you have a problem. |
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> |
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> Me, I would put it in a closet or something with a ethernet cable hooked |
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> up and just update it say once every 6 to 8 weeks. Just hope for the |
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> best after that. |
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> |
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> Dale |
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> |
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> :-) :-) |
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I have an "emergency desktop" system at work that I recently pulled out |
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of storage to use (laptop HD died!). Once used, I spent quite a while |
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updating it and was just going to put it aside using Dales suggestion |
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when this thread got me thinking. |
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I am going to clean out gnome and anything not of immediate use leaving |
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just a bare desktop and minimal tools needed for emergency use (OO, |
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evolution) - I'll replace gnome with fluxbox first. |
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Then if it needs to get serious use other packages can be added on the |
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fly. If it looks like longer term use, its easy to add gnome etc back |
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overnight, and while continuing to use the fluxbox desktop. |
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The minimal system should be quicker and simpler to update than a crufty |
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system - and if you have to update much of gnome and the like, |
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updating/reinstalling might take longer than building from scratch |
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anyway (going by my last update to gnome :) |
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BillK |
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