Upgrading to FC12 may have been a mistake

[MSich]

I'm still a relative newbie. I only began using Linux with the release of FC8. I've upgraded into every new version (upgrade, no clean installs), after the new versions had been out a while.

I struggle with command lines, updates, cups and other very cool tools that are only difficult because they have so many options. I'm Windows guy at work, a system admin and db administrator, plus the company expert on Excel. But, all in all, I hate Windows, and I'm loving Fedora, even if I struggle.

This last upgrade really kicked me in the pants. The first thing I noticed was all of my software sources were gone. I did some research around the forum and tried a few things, but it's still not working. Unfortunately, I may have uninstalled Yum in the process, but not rpm. I've tried to re-install the yum packages, but still no luck.

This morning before leaving for work I noticed that a boot log indicated that cups had failed. I went in to restart the service (through gui) and it said it was running. So I stopped the service and re-started. I tried to access port 631 through Firefox and it wouldn't open. I need to check the firewall to see if it's an open port, but beyond that I don't know.

Now I'm wondering if I should just do a clean install. I haven't done this, mainly because I didn't want to hassle with setting up my printer again (although, it's a Brother and they have the drivers and good instructions), and I didn't want to lose any emails that I've received via Thunderbird. The printer is really a non-issue now, as I'll have to set it up anyway. I have a backup of the /usr folder and all the documents.

Question is, if I restore the Thunderbird folder after a clean install, would it bring back my email?

Anyway, thanks to everyone on these boards, as I've received much assistance from here in the past. I probably would have given up many times over without your help.

[mbratch]

I would do the clean install. I did several on FC12 due to working out some other issues and it didn't take that long once I had the routine down.

Go to your login home directory, and there will be a hidden directory called .thunderbird. Under there will be some scrambled looking directory name, like .thunderbird/x28aq2ns.default.. You want to save everything that's under there. When you reinstall everything, you'll have a differently named directory under .thunderbird. Copy what's under your old one to there and all your emails and address books will be preserved.

If you're a Linux newbie and aren't doing much in the way of development or something, you might want to consider (dare I say it) Ubuntu. But regardless, try not to over-customize out of the gate. Let Fedora put in what it thinks you need at first based upon high level requirements. Then taylor bit by bit from there.

[MSich]

Thanks mbratch. I did a clean install last night. I still have some odds and ends. I need to install my printer, but cups is working. And the software sources are back, so that's good.

Thanks for the tip on Thunderbird. I knew those files had to be somewhere. That helped a lot.

[mbratch]

Glad you're up and running again. Fedora should just "see" your printer when you go in to the printer admin tool and you can just activate it.