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I am using linuxmint-10-KDE.
I have several partitions that I will reuse. One of them is /home.
This /home/nomikos has a lot of gnome related files that I want to delete before install the new linuxmint-12-gnome.
So how could I make some clean in my home directory to achieve the cleanest installation?

EDIT1: The main idea of this clean process is don't use old and erroneous configuration files. Maybe deleting some .gnome/ or .gtk directories?

EDIT2: Resuming: "I want to keep most of /home intact except for .gnome stuff." (THX @jw013)

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If you don't plan on keeping anything doesn't a normal install already nuke everything? Just tell it not to keep the existing filesystem and create a new /home in the partition. – jw013 Jan 6 '12 at 15:33
@jw013 I don't understand you. I want maintain my home directory as a dedicated partition. The main idea of this clean process is don't use old and erroneous configuration files. Maybe deleting some .gnome/ or .gtk directories? – NomikOS Jan 6 '12 at 15:46
You'll have to be more clear on what you are trying to do. The "cleanest installation" is to wipe everything. Is that really what you want or do you want to keep most of /home intact except for .gnome stuff? – jw013 Jan 6 '12 at 16:09
@jw013 I want to keep most of /home intact except for .gnome stuff. – NomikOS Jan 6 '12 at 16:16
1  
It would help to make that more clear in your question. I don't use gnome so I'll let someone else answer but I'd start with removing the .gconf* and .gnome* directories. You'll want backups just in case you decide there was something you wanted to keep. – jw013 Jan 6 '12 at 16:19

2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

I would say if you want some config files to remain as they are and others not, it entirely depends on what you want to keep and what you don't. I generally like to do a full clean install each time I upgrade, and usually what I do is create back-up copies of all my config files with a simple bash script (usually I remove the '.', so that I can work with them more easily).

Then save a back-up of your other files (usually what I do is ssh everything to another computer or copy to external hard drive.

Then delete all the dot files, install your updated distro, and then any settings you see you haven't got, start looking through how you set things up before.

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+1 that is a good idea in general. But it must be a closer solution to the gnome specific issue. THX. – NomikOS Jan 7 '12 at 15:30
up vote 1 down vote

You could consider renaming your /home/nomikos directory (to e.g. nomikos.orig) and during the install recreate the nomikos user account. Afterwards, copy/move all stuff you need from nomikos.old to the fresh user account. I gave this a shot during my latest Ubuntu re-install and it worked nicely.

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+1 (but not the expected answer) As in a previous comment I did. The main issue here is just clean gnome related stuff. – NomikOS Jun 20 '12 at 14:42

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