Switching motherboards with linux

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TekieB

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 27, 2003
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Okay, I have an old 233mhz compaq as running redhat 9 as a webserver. But I need something more powerful due to the increased traffic/PHP stuff. Fourtanetly I have a box with an a7n8x-D and a 2500 barton sitting next to it thats going un-used. so my question is: Will linux geek out if I just stick the hard drive in the new box and boot? If so how hard will it be to reconfig? Or would I be better off reinstalling linux on the new machine?
 
Going from that exteme a platform, yeah its gonna kernel-panic on some of the newer stuff. Your best bet is this:

Backup all your config data for your apps (start with the /etc/ directory)
Backup your website data (try the /var/www directories)
Backup the home directories (/home)

Make notes about what programs you have installed on the old system for re-installation on the new platform.

Install the system on your new platform and re-install the configs on the new machine.

If its a webserver, you dont know what to expect when switching out hardware, kernel differences, etc, you should reinstall. It is possible to do a swapout of the HDD, but you need to be prepared for the consequences. Just like in the windows world.
 
Thanks for the input. Thankfully all I have installed (other than default) is xmapp, so one directory, and nothing else. So would I almost be better just reinstalling and not stress about kernel panics?
 
Well you said you run a webserver? You will need some config's out of the /etc and the document root(s). Backup backup backup :D

Bring the new system online first before you decomission the old one, just to play it safe
 
from what i've read xmapp stores EVERYTHING in the /opt/lampp/ directory... but i'll back it up to be safe
 
Actually, if you use a generic kernel, I can't see why it shouldn't work. I'd suggest trying (after making backups). After all, it won't cost you many minutes.
 
HHunt said:
Actually, if you use a generic kernel, I can't see why it shouldn't work. I'd suggest trying (after making backups). After all, it won't cost you many minutes.
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Thats true. It should work. Its going to boil down to the kernel. RH 9 is fairly "modern" so it wouldnt be that big a deal.
 
It should run pretty well - you might need to reconfigure a few things to really get it working (network, X11) but the system should come up.
 
you could always compile a somewhat generic kernel that you are sure will work with the new hardware, and then just stick it in /boot and set up a new grub entry. You can then just swap out the hardware and boot up into the new kernel.

-march=pentium compile options may prove a problem (you wont have any if you used binary packages)
 
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