disk sector goes bad, it may take the entire filesystem with it, but it
     won't disturb other partitions. Likewise, users can't mess with stuff
     that's mounted readonly. The down side is managing the partitions and
     predicting how big to make them. If one gets full but another is mostly
     empty, you'll have to repartition or use symlinks.

   (?) Here /home is on a different partition than the partition with the
   software. Will users (IDs) be created with respect to a partition /home? 

     (!) [Thomas] An update doesn't concern itself with changing critical
     information such as that -- the only way {U,G}IDs would be affected is if
     shadow or login were updated -- and even then, the config files are not
     touched as a result.

     (!) [Mike] User IDs (UIDs) are created in /etc/passwd according to the
     existing entries in /etc/passwd. The smallest unused number is assigned,
     subject to a minimum and maximum. Where /home is mounted doesn't matter.
     /home doesn't have to be mounted at all if you don't use the -m option
     (useradd), which creates the home directory.

   (?) OK, I've been wanting to do a completely new installation on /dev/hda,
   let's just try it... 

   A little later: it turns out that things can be quite simple after all. 

   YaST was so unhappy at being told not to format / that I backed up the one
   non-system-directory on it and let YaST reformat it. Other than that and my
   dictating partitioning, a vanilla install, basically just accepted whatever
   was suggested. 

     (!) [Thomas] Of course it would be unhappy about that. /etc, /lib, /bin.
     /sbin -- are all directories the installer will need access to. It's
     highly unlikely they're as their own partition (you wouldn't need nor want
     them to be so they're under "/".

     (!) [Mike] I've never seen a Linux installer that sniffled and sulked if
     it couldn't format something, but I guess there's always a first. Usually
     they have options to let you mount a preformatted partition.

   (?) What was really neat is that YaST had absolutely no trouble using a
   previously available /home! True, I had to re-create the users, but that is
   normal and in the process YaST notes the presence of corresponding home
   directories and asks whether they are to be used. 

   That pretty much solves that problem, for me at least. The Germans have a
   saying, roughly: trying something out is better than studying it. 

   But I'd still appreciate comments. Is there a gotcha somewhere? Hmmm, this
   SOHO doesn't have many users. And what about all the settings in /etc?
   /boot? Like would it have been possible to copy /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow
   from  a backup? Sounds like that particular ice might be getting a bit
   thin... 

     (!) [Neil] Settings in /etc and /boot are best created from scratch when
     doing a clean install IMO, especially when any of them are maintained by
     automated tools like YaST. There's always the possibly of significant
     changes between versions and just copying back your old settings can be a
     bit risky, although 9 times out of 10 you won't have a problem.

     All IMO. Unlike many in the gang, I don't sysadmin, so others may have
     more authoritative answers. NOTE: We do not guarantee a consensus ;-)

     (!) [Mike] Copying the user entries from /etc/passwd is fine, as long as
     the  numbers  don't overlap. Just make sure nothing else is editing
     /etc/passwd simultaneously, or use "vipw" to lock it while you're editing.
     /etc/shadow  is  probably  fine  too,  just be aware that the other
     distribution may have a different file location and different syntax. If
     it  doesn't  recognize the new password, you may have to restart...
     something.

     (Actually, the UIDs can overlap if you really want two usernames treated
     the same. Some people use this to have a second root login with a static
     shell (/bin/sash). This is useful if you hose your dynamic libraries; with
     a static shell you can repair the damage. Just copy the root line, leave
     the UID 0, change the username to something else, and set the password.)
            ____________________________________________________

(?) after installing new kernel running lilo crushes system

   From Ridder, Peter, AGU 

                                  Answered By: Neil Youngman, John Karns 

   Hallo, 

   I have a Knoppix 3.3 HD installation on a Dell Latitude 610. The HD holds
   the following partitions: 
hda1    Primér  FAT16
hda5    Logisch NTFS
hda6    Logisch Linux ext2
hda7    Logisch Linux swap
hda8    Logisch Linux ext3
hda9    Logisch NTFS

   I use the NT loader placed in /dev/hda1 

   /dev/hda1 contains a file bootsec.lin which is a copy. 
dd if=/dev/hda8 bs=512 count=1 of=/boot/bootsec.lin
cp /boot/bootsec.lin /mnt/hda1/bootsec.lin=20