[LUNI] [HELP] X Problem Since Update

[Robert Smith]

Arun Khan <knura at yahoo.com> wrote:  b) As root back up /home into a file (tar czf home.tar.gz /home) and 
save it some place. Reinstall your distro and restore /home from your 
back up file. If your /home is on a different disk partition, this may 
not be necessary - just keep in mind not to format this partition 
during the reinstall :)
  Arun, I have updated the packages in my system several times now. If I do what you mention above, will I run into any weird user issues because of current configs (after the install) not matching what is in the /home directory for a given user (I currently have 2 user accounts on my machine). One example I can think of offhand would be Firefox. The original install included Firefox version 2.0.0.4, and since installing, I've upgraded to both 2.0.0.5, and then last night to 2.0.0.6.
   
  Also, I remember when I first installed PCLinuxOS 2007, I installed it on a drive that had previously been home to an older version of SimplyMEPIS (before MEPIS became a Ubuntu derivative). I left the /home directory intact but had problems accessing my user account (yes, password was set to match the old one) after the build. I ended up creating a new user, copying the data files over from the old user's home to that of the new (as root), and then changing file permissions so I could access them as the new user. In the end, I used a USB stick drive to back up my data and then just blew away the entire install.
   
  Thoughts?
   
  Rob Smith