Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Switching distros but keeping /home question

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Switching distros but keeping /home question

    Hello all,

    I am planning to switch from 64bit Kubuntu 7.10 to SimplyMEPIS 7 when the final release comes out. In my current setup, I have / and /home installed on separate partitions, so my plan is to reformat and install Mepis on /, while preserving my data and personal settings on /home.

    I've received feedback from the Mepis forums that I might run into problems if I keep the settings contained in the hidden directories of my home directory (e.g. ~/.kde). The consensus advice was to backup and then delete these hidden directories before the Mepis install, then copy back the minimum number of hidden directories I needed (e.g. my kmail and kaddressbook directories from ~/.kde/share/apps).

    My preference is to preserve as many of my settings from my current Kubuntu install as possible by keeping all the hidden directories in my home directory. My impression is that Mepis and Kubuntu do have some differences in their directory structure, but wouldn't those differences all be in other system directories, e.g. /etc? Put another way, isn't the directory structure of the ~/.kde directories determined by the individual apps and not the distro? If so, why would keeping these directories cause a problem?

    Advice and shared experiences about these factors in making a distro switch are sincerely appreciated.

    #2
    Re: Switching distros but keeping /home question

    It should be mostly OK, with tweaks, to keep your /home directory. The problems will involve settings for packages that you had installed in Kubuntu, but don't have installed in Mepis. Upon installing them in Mepis, you may or may not have the right settings for that desktop -- it depends in part on how customized your desktop is.

    Any icons that you presently have on your Kubuntu desktop are not likely to work correctly on Mepis, so you you'll have to redo them anyway. Custom wallpaper will be pointing to the wrong location, probably. I think there are some differences in the Mepis OpenGL screensavers, although I wouldn't swear to it.

    Personally (and I do have a Mepis 7 RC installation) I find it a more straightforward and predictable process to just export my Firefox bookmarks, save any configuration files that I think may help on the new installation (xorg.conf, menu.lst) and then do a clean installation of the new OS, and then import the bookmarks and do the configuration using the reference files as applicable. Besides, a new desktop deserves a fresh look, anyway!

    P.S. Compiz doesn't work in Mepis, at least not for 64-bit.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Switching distros but keeping /home question

      Personally (and I do have a Mepis 7 RC installation) I find it a more straightforward and predictable process to just export my Firefox bookmarks, save any configuration files that I think may help on the new installation (xorg.conf, menu.lst) and then do a clean installation of the new OS, and then import the bookmarks and do the configuration using the reference files as applicable. Besides, a new desktop deserves a fresh look, anyway!
      Yeah, I'm thinking more and more about taking this approach. I just want to preserve my emails, contacts, playlists, etc. So you vote for deleting my hidden directories and pulling over the minimum number of settings from my backup?

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Switching distros but keeping /home question

        I find it a more straightforward and predictable process to just export my Firefox bookmarks...
        Check out the Foxmarks extension for Firefox. If you install Foxmarks onto a clean Firefox install, it will give you the option to restore all of your saved bookmarks during the first sync.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Switching distros but keeping /home question

          Actually, I've gradually come to the view that for multiple OS installations, you want to put your common data on a separate drive/partition(s) outside of the Linux filesystems altogether, and then edit /etc/fstab to automatically mount it from whichever OS you boot. I still put "/home" on its own smallish partition for each OS, in case an upgrade inadvertently turns into a re-installation (know what I mean?).

          For a single OS system, for which you are simply changing the OS, then I guess I'd nuke the settings folders and files, and of course leave my data untouched, and then just re-mount the "/home" partition when I install the new OS.

          EDIT: I see your note about Foxmarks, but it's really hard from me to imagine anything simpler than "Bookmarks>Organize>File>Export>Save", and then the reverse process for the new installation. 8)

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Switching distros but keeping /home question

            Actually, I've gradually come to the view that for multiple OS installations, you want to put your common data on a separate drive/partition(s) outside of the Linux filesystems altogether, and then edit /etc/fstab to automatically mount it from whichever OS you boot. I still put "/home" on its own smallish partition for each OS, in case an upgrade inadvertently turns into a re-installation (know what I mean?).
            That's very clever. Then I guess you could link the directories on your separate data partition to your separate /home partitions.

            For a single OS system, for which you are simply changing the OS, then I guess I'd nuke the settings folders and files, and of course leave my data untouched, and then just re-mount the "/home" partition when I install the new OS.
            Agreed.

            EDIT: I see your note about Foxmarks, but it's really hard from me to imagine anything simpler than "Bookmarks>Organize>File>Export>Save", and then the reverse process for the new installation.
            Very true. But Foxmarks has the added benefit of syncing your bookmarks between computers (or OSs on virtual machines or a multi-boot system).

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Switching distros but keeping /home question

              I have mepis 7.0 beta, various kubuntus, a mint KDE 4,0 beta and a mandriva (as of today). Just make a new user in your /hoem and copy over all the relevat adresses, calanders, firefox / TB defaults, etc as needed. I am not sure if the .kde and your kde setups (eyecandy) for kubuntu and the mepis version will be happy with each other. Actually I am pretty sure they won't be. The Kubuntu version of kde varies greatly from kde in mepis.

              Putting your data on a separate partition is a mucho good idea to dible

              edit: Foxmarks is cool

              HP Pavilion dv6 core i7 (Main)
              4 GB Ram
              Kubuntu 18.10

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Switching distros but keeping /home question

                Foxmarks is so damn cool its one of the few reasons I still use firefox and not konqueror for internet browsing (gspace being another).

                Comment

                Working...
                X