share /home

[vsreeser]

If i install multiple distros, can I share the /home partition? Would i need to use a diff username in each install to avoid problems?
Right now I have Kubuntu 14.04 ND parrot OS installed using sep homes

[oshunluvr]

Personally, I wouldn't. Different distros could mean different versions of programs that have incompatible config files, etc. et. al.

To me, there are two "safe" ways to accomplish what I think you want (all your data files available to all your distros):

1) Have a main or primary distro with a separate /home partition. Mount this partition in all your other distros and link your home data folders to the folders in the main home. No need to have separate home partitions for any other distros except your main one. This works good if you tend to keep a clean LTS install on your PC for safety reasons.

2) Have all your personal data (Documents, Pictures, etc.) on a separate partition (called data or files or something similar) and mount and link folders to all your distros. No need for any distro to have a separate /home. The primary advantage to #2 is if you're a distro hopper, your data files are always in a familiar location.

In either case, you could still have separate home partitions for all your install to protect your settings and configs if you desired. The problem with that is you quickly waste a ton of drive space - 5 distros = 5 x 16GB for / + 5 x ??GB for /home. Your settings and configs take very little space but you might need tmp or database space or vm_drive space, etc. The best way to avoid wasting all that space is to use btrfs - especially if you're using a smallish SSD rather than a giant HDD.

[claydoh]

You can use the same partition for /home, for sure.

You can use the same username for both, but you need to make sure that the uid for both users match, as well as the username.

Most *buntus and derivatives assign uids the same way as they use the same installer, but other distros may not assign them using the same numbers. If they don't match, one distro wouldn't be able to access the folders in your $HOME

There is also a small chance of small issues, such as differences between software versions that might make the config files incompatible with the other, and things like that. Not likely, but possible.

Sent from my LG G4

[vsreeser]

Personally, I wouldn't. Different distros could mean different versions of programs that have incompatible config files, etc. et. al.

To me, there are two "safe" ways to accomplish what I think you want (all your data files available to all your distros):

1) Have a main or primary distro with a separate /home partition. Mount this partition in all your other distros and link your home data folders to the folders in the main home. No need to have separate home partitions for any other distros except your main one. This works good if you tend to keep a clean LTS install on your PC for safety reasons.

2) Have all your personal data (Documents, Pictures, etc.) on a separate partition (called data or files or something similar) and mount and link folders to all your distros. No need for any distro to have a separate /home. The primary advantage to #2 is if you're a distro hopper, your data files are always in a familiar location.

In either case, you could still have separate home partitions for all your install to protect your settings and configs if you desired. The problem with that is you quickly waste a ton of drive space - 5 distros = 5 x 16GB for / + 5 x ??GB for /home. Your settings and configs take very little space but you might need tmp or database space or vm_drive space, etc. The best way to avoid wasting all that space is to use btrfs - especially if you're using a smallish SSD rather than a giant HDD.

All my data files are on a 3Tb drive. I think links are the way to go. As for /tmp is has its own partition as well. I think I can share it ok. I guess it could be moved to ramfs, I do have 16Gb ram and I rarely see usage above 6Gb. No swap file so that's not an issue. Should have formatted ssd with gpt, but I guess if I really want to have tons of distros I could use partitions on other drives. More than 4 would seem to be a waste of time.

[vinnywright]

I do the links to a btrfs data drive like this

lrwxrwxrwx 1 vinny vinny      28 Aug 30 21:35 Documents -> /mnt/btrfs/kubuntu/Documents
lrwxrwxrwx 1 vinny vinny      28 Aug 30 21:36 Downloads -> /mnt/btrfs/kubuntu/Downloads
lrwxrwxrwx 1 vinny vinny      27 Sep  4 18:52 dwhelper -> /mnt/btrfs/kubuntu/dwhelper
lrwxrwxrwx 1 vinny vinny      24 Aug 30 21:36 Music -> /mnt/btrfs/kubuntu/Music
lrwxrwxrwx 1 vinny vinny      27 Aug 30 21:38 Pictures -> /mnt/btrfs/kubuntu/Pictures
lrwxrwxrwx 1 vinny vinny      25 Aug 30 21:38 Videos -> /mnt/btrfs/kubuntu/Videos

this is just the links the rest of ~/ is on /home/vinny ,,,,,,,,this is the same in 5 installs .

this way my stuff is accessible in all installs but they keep their own configs and settings .

VINNY