Restart the preious "good" config

[FVaiden]

I'm completely new to Linux/Kubuntu & trying to discover. Installed 7.04, with success. Then, first thing I tried was specifying my specific hardware for monitors (Dell 1800FP & AOC 9Lrc). Had to reboot and then... nothing but a black screen. Couldn't get anything up anymore.
So, reinstalled it completely & this time decided to first "test" the monitor setting from within the live CD version. Strangely enough: after that, my fresh install had the same problem: black screen! (Stalled somewhere while checking my harddisk).
Have a lot of questions about this behaviour, but: in Windows you can always restart the previous "good" config. Can this be done in Linux also?
And, why is the system always checking my partitions on startup while WinXP doesn't do that unless it had a crash before? It takes a lot of time, and is it really necessary?

[javierrivera]

Re: Restart the preious "good" config

Seens like your problem is not related to your monitors to me.

If you hit ALT+F1 when the computer is stalled, does it show any error messages?.

in Windows you can always restart the previous "good" config. Can this be done in Linux also?

No, but somehow .

There is no a feature like that. But linux configuration is not as complex as windows. Configuration is usually stored in /etc. If you copy all the files there you will have something very close to a windows XP restore point. Of course, with time, you will know wich files are going to change and just backup those.

And, why is the system always checking my partitions on startup while WinXP doesn't do that unless it had a crash before? It takes a lot of time, and is it really necessary?

It shouldn't. By default partitions should only be checked on a crash or after a given number of boots.

You can disable the boot checking of drivers editing the fstab file. Open konqueror, navigate to /etc, right-click on fstab and choose "edit as root".

The last number (usually 1 or 2) will make the system check the filesystem at boot. Put a 0 there and this filesystem will never be checked automatically.

Be careful, as any error editing the file could be quite fun to repair .

Javier.

[hotshotdj]

Re: Restart the preious "good" config

What I do is this: I use a Live CD distribution called System Rescue CD (version 0.3.4) from http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page to create an image of my root file system. Typically I do it once a month -- more frequently if I'm making significant changes to my system (eg when I'm trying "experimental" software).

Boot up the System Rescue CD, mount the partition that you want to use to save your image (do NOT mount the partition that you want to make an image of!) and then use partimage (at http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page) to create the backup. You will restore the same way... mount the partition that contains the image you wish to restore (do NOT mount the partition that you will be restoring!). You can use any Live distribution that includes partimage. I have an external usb hard drive that I use to save images and to rsync my home directory.

EDIT: I thought about this a bit more... there really is no reason that a small "System Maintenance & Restore" partition couldn't be used. Install a small Linux Distribution in its own partition with a bunch of important utilities, such as partimage, qtparted (or gparted), testdisk, etc. You'd access it the same way as any dual/multiboot system through grub when you start up your system. Anyway, just an additional thought.

2nd EDIT: Just to clean up the links -- tags didn't work the way I thought they would