Can I reinstall Ubuntu

[todpod]

without totally wiping out the system.

From a previous post i have a couple of boot issues, redoning the boot order in the bios yesterday seems to have helped. GRUB has windows listed as a boot option but this computer has never had windows installed since I had loaded ubuntu. I was booting the hard drive in a usb case to a laptop that had windows (would GRUB automatically add that as an option to boot to windows?)

This computer has an AMD APU and it the audio through HDMI doesn't work, thought I might install the AMD drivers for it.

The computer
AMD A6-3620 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics × 4

Drivers
Gallium 0.4 on AMD SUMO

So whats the fall back position if I crash and need to get back running, a reinstall?

 

[lxskllr]

If Grub sees another install(or remnants thereof), it'll add it to the boot menu, so you'll still see it, even if you boot from a computer that never had that O/S installed. You can update Grub from the blank computer to get rid of that entry

sudo update-grub

There's numerous ways to rescue a system. As with most things, if they break, they can be unbroken, but the variables are how much skill and time it will take to do so. If you don't have much in the way of customization, I'd backup /home and maybe /etc, then do a reinstall if things get too out of hand. That's probably quicker, but if you want to learn how you screwed it up, and want to spend the time, outside of a major disaster you should be able to use the existing system.

 

[todpod]

If I do break it it would be nice to know how to fix it. I am semi skilled, ie know enough to get into trouble.

In my home directory my video folder is about 400 gigs big but I have that backed up to another PC and WD live hub. That's the biggie.

I will start with grub if it doesn't boot up right tomorrow, it seemed to work better today and then work on the AMD drivers. These are cool little motherboards if i can get everything working right (hdmi).. The live hub is a couple years old and probably replace when the time comes with a Ubuntu media player /server.