Additional Preview Release 2 Installation Information

Recommended procedure for upgrading from the BeOS Preview Release to the Preview Release 2 (PR2).

Due to issues which have arisen with a few customers upgrading from their existing Preview Release 1 system to the new Preview Release 2, Be has written this document to clarify the recommended upgrade procedure.

Note: These instructions assume that you have already installed the Preview Release 1 version of the BeOS on a dedicated or partitioned hard drive or cartridge. If you are installing the BeOS for the first time from the PR2 CD, this information is not for you. See the Installation Instructions that came with your CD for information about installing the BeOS on your system.

The PR2 installer gives you the choice of doing either a basic install or a clean install. The regular install lets you replace files selectively, or replace all files. But even if you choose the Replace All option, the PR2 Installer will only replace or remove files in your /home or /apps directories if they are part of the BeOS distribution. In other words, files you have downloaded, added or created will not be lost if they are stored in either the /apps or the /home directory.

Confusion has arisen over the "Clean Install" option, however, with users reasonably assuming that a Clean Install overwrites only outdated files, and leaves files not changed in the upgraded version intact.

As some BeOS users have already learned to their dismay, this is not the case. Clean install does not simply update the BeOS directory. Rather, it deletes any folder that has the same name as a folder in the PR2 version -- including the /home directory -- and replaces it with a new PR2 folder.

This means that doing a Clean Install blows away the /apps, /beos, /demos, /develop, /home and /preferences top-level folders, and any and all of the files and folders they contain -- many of which you may have grown fond of, or consider essential.

The only real reason to do a Clean Install is if you are upgrading from the BeOS Advanced Access release to PR2. Clean Install was included in the installation procedures initially to deal with quirks in the Advanced Access file structure. It's probably best not to use it to upgrade from the Preview Release to PR2.

However, if for reasons of your own you want to upgrade from the Preview Release to PR2 using a Clean Install, do one of the following to avoid pain and regret:

• Back up all your files before installing PR2, or

• Rename the folders you want to keep to prevent their replacement by PR2 folders. Duplicating a *top-level* folder has the same effect as renaming it.

Also, whether you do a Clean Install or a basic install, the PR2 installer overwrites the commercial version of Metrowerks Code Warrior from the Preview Release with the more limited version on the PR2 CD. Therefore, however you install PR2, back up or rename the Preview Release Metrowerks folder, or be prepared to re-install it from your CodeWarrior CD.

If you are looking for a way to completely replace everything on your BeOS volume with the latest BeOS release, a much cleaner (and easier) method than a Clean Install is reinitializing your drive or partition and installing a fresh copy from the CD. But don't consider doing this without first backing up the files you want to keep!