I'd just do a fresh install, but make sure you get to manually handle 
the partitions. Then make them the same and don't formate /home.

Bada-bing! New install preserving /home

Brian

Miguel A. Lerma wrote:
> Hi, I have a machine with SL 4.5 and I want to install SL 5.2
> on it, but without destroying the /home partition. When booting
> from the installation CD I am given basically only two options:
>
> - Upgrade 4.5 preserving data.
>
> - Install 5.2 destroying all data on the drive.
>
> There is also an option claiming to install only on selected
> partitions, but when I use it I do not see the current partitions
> and I cannot select which ones to use for installation and which
> ones to preserve.
>
> Is there any way to install 5.2 without destroying the home partition?
>
> This is my current layout:
>
> $ df -h
> Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/sda3            1012M  886M   75M  93% /
> /dev/sda1              99M   74M   21M  79% /boot
> none                 1009M     0 1009M   0% /dev/shm
> /dev/sda5              99G   41G   54G  43% /home
> /dev/sda6             9.9G  374M  9.0G   4% /opt
> /dev/sda10           1012M   34M  927M   4% /tmp
> /dev/sda11             94G   73G   16G  83% /u1
> /dev/sda8             9.9G  4.2G  5.2G  45% /usr
> /dev/sda7             9.9G  2.3G  7.1G  25% /usr/local
> /dev/sda9             2.0G  439M  1.5G  23% /var
>
>
> # fdisk -l
>
> Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/sda2              14         535     4192965   82  Linux swap
> /dev/sda3             536         666     1052257+  83  Linux
> /dev/sda4             667       30394   238790160    5  Extended
> /dev/sda5             667       13720   104856223+  83  Linux
> /dev/sda6           13721       15025    10482381   83  Linux
> /dev/sda7           15026       16330    10482381   83  Linux
> /dev/sda8           16331       17635    10482381   83  Linux
> /dev/sda9           17636       17896     2096451   83  Linux
> /dev/sda10          17897       18027     1052226   83  Linux
> /dev/sda11          18028       30394    99337896   83  Linux
>
>
> I have to do something similar not only on this machine, but on
> about thirty machines that we have in the department. Installing
> fresh on each machine and recovering data from backups is going
> to take forever, if possible I would prefer to install without
> destroying the user's data.
>
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
>
> Miguel A. Lerma
>
> --
>   Miguel A. Lerma
>   Math Comp Sys Admin
>   Department of Mathematics  <[log in to unmask]>
>   Northwestern University    <http://www.math.northwestern.edu/~mlerma/>
>   2033 Sheridan Road         847-491-8020 (w)
>   Evanston, IL 60208-2730    847-491-8906 (f)
>