Move Home from SSD to HDD; Guide? What happened to etc/fstab?

[bobbicat]

can you also run:

sudo blkid

and

sudo fstab -l

and put whole the result for each here

It will give me a better idea of where we are, I do need to see the whole result of these commands..

[pwrcul]

/dev/sda1: UUID="063E0D2E2FEA93F9" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda2: UUID="5004f103-f1b3-4169-b29a-b6a74bc89151" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="9C4EF6054EF5D84A" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb2: UUID="83427977-6185-489c-ae11-e7ea1544b809" TYPE="ext4"

sudo fstab -l
sudo: fstab: command not found

[bobbicat]

oops sorry i meant

sudo fdisk -l

[xennex81]

Jikes, having an end-user do this. For pwrcul: the /mount point/ is where a different partition takes control of the directory structure. You cannot umount (unmount) the old /home while you are logged in but you also don't need to do it because the old /home is probably just part of the root filesystem, ie. it is physically present on the SSD "root" partition. Once you mount your sdb2 on top of /home it will COVER what files were previously visible there. The old files are still on the root filesystem and if you've copied to sdb2 (using that /mnt/tmp directory) everything should still be on /dev/sdb2 (that is a device, not a mount directory) which you can mount wherever you want.

All fstab does is to provide default mount points for these drives or partitions. This means your new fstab will cause your new filesystem at sdb2 to become mounted by default on /home, which will cover what's still there (if anything) and make it really hard to view the old content (if anything is still there). Obviously, it is good to have a backup on external as well.

I hope this helps some bit. To summarize again, the steps required are (were):

1. create a new filesystem on sdb2
2. mount the new (empty) filesystem on some temporary location (such as /mnt)
3. logout your normal user and log in as root through a TTY (text console) because otherwise you will copy some open files (you can skip this step, it is not essential).
4. copy or rsync the old /home to the new temp location that you have sdb2 mounted on (such as /mnt).
5. umount (unmount) /mnt again (bobbicat chose /mnt/tmp -- but /mnt is always for temp mounts).
6. edit your fstab so that /dev/sdb2 will get mounted on /home /at boot/ (italics).
7. reboot (or if you've done step 3 you can now type "mount /home" and it will automatically mount the right one).

So what fstab does it provides a list of mount locations that you can easier access with the "mount" command as well as that it mounts these things at boot.

When you mount /home and /home is in the fstab it will automatically find the right DEVICE for that MOUNT POINT, conversely if you only specify a device it will also find the right mount point.

A little background.

[pwrcul]

oops sorry i meant

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000cfaba

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 16065 71682029 35832982+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 71682030 154400714 41359342+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc03aadea

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 102414374 51207156 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sdb2 102414375 163862999 30724312+ 83 Linux
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.

[pwrcul]

Jikes, having an end-user do this. For pwrcul: the /mount point/ is where a different partition takes control of the directory structure. You cannot umount (unmount) the old /home while you are logged in but you also don't need to do it because the old /home is probably just part of the root filesystem, ie. it is physically present on the SSD "root" partition. Once you mount your sdb2 on top of /home it will COVER what files were previously visible there. The old files are still on the root filesystem and if you've copied to sdb2 (using that /mnt/tmp directory) everything should still be on /dev/sdb2 (that is a device, not a mount directory) which you can mount wherever you want.

All fstab does is to provide default mount points for these drives or partitions. This means your new fstab will cause your new filesystem at sdb2 to become mounted by default on /home, which will cover what's still there (if anything) and make it really hard to view the old content (if anything is still there). Obviously, it is good to have a backup on external as well.

I hope this helps some bit. To summarize again, the steps required are (were):

1. create a new filesystem on sdb2
2. mount the new (empty) filesystem on some temporary location (such as /mnt)
3. logout your normal user and log in as root through a TTY (text console) because otherwise you will copy some open files (you can skip this step, it is not essential).
4. copy or rsync the old /home to the new temp location that you have sdb2 mounted on (such as /mnt).
5. umount (unmount) /mnt again (bobbicat chose /mnt/tmp -- but /mnt is always for temp mounts).
6. edit your fstab so that /dev/sdb2 will get mounted on /home /at boot/ (italics).
7. reboot (or if you've done step 3 you can now type "mount /home" and it will automatically mount the right one).

So what fstab does it provides a list of mount locations that you can easier access with the "mount" command as well as that it mounts these things at boot.

When you mount /home and /home is in the fstab it will automatically find the right DEVICE for that MOUNT POINT, conversely if you only specify a device it will also find the right mount point.

A little background.

Hello, xennex81,

Thanks for the short explanation.

You are right I am mystified by the journey through Linux plumbing, but it is a journey I long have wanted to take for this issue of separate home directory--and it has practical, long-term importance to me.

I very much appreciate bobbicat's help.

I also appreciate the explanation.

If you know any accessible references for what you told me I would appreciate them.

[pwrcul]

Folks,

I have an update. I am writing this on my netbook.
My larger system with the SSD and HDD crashed. (I suspect while I was using the plasmoid, Lancelot, to open the System options and start up System Monitor.)
Anyhow, it crashed.
I waited a few minutes and then rebooted..
I did not see the usual grub2 options or a splash screen but I got my usual login screen.
I logged in and got a generic Kubuntu 14.04 desktop, so no wallpaper, virtual desktops, plasmoids I had installed.
Dolphin shows me the /home I had on the SSD
On the HDD it gives me the same items under my User name.

Firefox does not have my bookmarks but can be useable.
I just opened kubuntuforums there.

I will go do a slow jog and come back....

[bobbicat]

I take it you can see your home folder? What does it contain? ( the /home folder you can see is the one on your hard drive at /dev/sdb2)
I am hoping it contains all the files that you expect it should. If not you will have to copy them across from your back up drive. The arrangement in fstab sorts out what is mounted and what is not. Which means that with the present set up, you can see and use the partition sdb2 on your hard drive and its contents will appear as /home. Which is what xennex81 was explaining I believe.

If this is so there are a couple more suggestions I have, but please confirm what you see when you look at your filing system in dolphin. I'm hoping you see a complete /home file containing the data you expect to be there.

[bobbicat]

Aah you beat me to the post, your configuration will largely be in the hidden files in /home. If you can find them, they are files with a dot in front of them, made visible by pressing the alt key and the period or full stop, simultaneously when in dolphin. If you have them on your backup drive copy them across into your /home folder and restart your PC. If you don't have them you will unfortunately have to reconfigure manually.

I was going to offer a couple more suggestions to tweak your fstab, but lets wait until you have your system in a settled state.

[pwrcul]

Hello, bobbicat,

(I tried to send this but had to login again so it is before you 3:07 last post.)

What I see using Dolphin for both /home in the SSD from root and for the HDD partition is:
Desktop Downloads Music Public Templates
Documents Dropbox Pictures temp help move home dir.txt Videos
plus a set of dot files
(I copied the above from running ls in the Terminal, but if you need to see the dot files, let me know a tweak for ls or Dolphin that will let me produce a copy.)
It is not what I had and I hoped for.

I recreated yesterday the Downloads and Dropbox directories.
Downloads has two files: a podcast mp3 file and the setup and the dropbox_2015.02.12_amd64.deb
file
I added to Dropbox a file, apps1404.list that I generated last night before the crash by the command
sudo dpkg -l > apps1404.list
It's in case I need to reinstall....

The "temp help move...." is a Kate file with a running record of what we have been doing
The Desktop and other directories came up this morning.

What I saved in the backup USB drive by running the cp command several days ago, so no dot files, I think, just the text contents of the directories.

Have we lost what we previously copied with rsync?
Should we check somehow?

If not, let's work out how to proceed....

[oshunluvr]

Sounds to me like you didn't get all the files copied over or the ownership/attributes weren't saved. You haven't "lost" anything unless you deleted your old home, you made a backup too, right?

If you have a backup, restore it into your new home and be done with it. Personally, I'd stop making new folders and mucking about until you've restored your home to your satisfaction.

[bobbicat]

Have you still got a copy of your home folder on your backup drive?

[pwrcul]

Have you still got a copy of your home folder on your backup drive?

Yes, but I think it will not have the DOT files.
I will connect it.
I can try copying the contents of a directory, e.g., Dropbox, and put them in a new directory, OldDropbox, and see...

I take it we lost the results of the rsync. Correct?

[pwrcul]

bobbicat,

Hey!, I see lots of those dot files!
I opened .kde and the subdirectories, etc. are there.
How do you recommend doing the restore attempt?

[oshunluvr]

rsync -aXS --progress /<PATH TO YOUR BACKUP>/. /home/<YOUR USER>/.

Then to verify:

diff -r /home/<YOUR USER> /<PATH TO YOUR BACKUP

but your restore is only as good as your backup.