[PLUG] Move home directory to new HD

[Chuck Hast]

So far so good.
Ed, that is what I remember as what I did the last time I went through this.
Indeed this morning I did the same thing I partitioned the HD on the new
machine with gpartd, I set the following
/root
/home
/var ( I like to keep that one as it usually has some stuff in it that gets
passed
         down to the next HD)
/swap
I installed the OS rebooted and nothing, I guess either it did not install
grub
or something else was wrong. Anyhow I whacked it and told the system to
just do a NOOB install to make sure all was OK, it did so, now I have got to
go get near a network link that is not over satellite and re-try it again
so I can
download all of the stuff I will want, but at least I know that all is
well, just have
to see where I messed up. I flagged the / as bootable, as usual, but no joy.

I even installed Compiz on the thing, it is working great (well some stuff
does
not work because the zombies at Ubuntu seem to have messed things up
with the Unity thing) but it works enough to at least check all out and get
on
with making sure all of the hardware is working.

Tomorrow I will go where I can get a hard wired connection and reload the
thing but my way then I will do the transfer of my junk to it, sans .files.

Thanks for the good info so far.

Little Thinkpad X201 screams. Once I get a couple of VM's running on it I
will
know for sure how well it does. My little X200 runs two of them at the same
time and still keeps up with things pretty well. Even when I am running a
Win7 session in one and some other variant of Linux in the other.

On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 7:54 PM, King Beowulf <kingbeowulf at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 03/29/2015 08:03 AM, Chuck Hast wrote:
> > Folks,
> > It has been a long time since I had to do this one, but I am going to
> > set up a new (yea it is relative) machine a refurbed X201 that I just
> > got. I put a 1 tb HD in it and am going to move my present work to
> > it so I can refurb my X200 ( screen has bad tubes or PSU) and I
> > need to do some other things to it. I did this I think about 5 years
> > ago and recall that I messed some things up but can not remember
> > what I did, I finally got it all going right, but would like to do it in
> one
> > fell swoop without having to go in and fix issues, and no surprises
> > on the road either.
> >
> > So I am all ears as to how to do it properly. The last time I did this
> > of course the machine created a home directory for my login, but
> > I had to go in and replace it with my original home directory after the
> > whole thing had been created, then like now the disk was a clean new
> > disk, and I copied the home directory from another disk. I am thinking
> > to go ahead and move the home directory to the new disk prior to
> > installing OS as I always set up a separate partition for the home
> > directory.
> >
> > I am now ready to hear any and all recommendations.
> >
>
> Chuck
>
> I do this all the time. Don't listen to all those nancies with their
> scary stories.  It's straight forward, if sometimes a bit tedious.
>
> Step 1:
> identify all software you added that is not part of your base distro
> install.  Make note of the ones you still use.
>
> Step 2:
> mount a backup drive and rsync /home/<user> to it, dot files and all.
>
> Step 3:
> Install a fresh copy of your distro on the 1TB drive of the X201 with at
> least 3 partitions:
>
> /dev/sda1  (for the new /root)
> /dev/sda2  (for the new /home)
> /dev/sda3 (ie /swap ... mostly optional these days
>
> (BTW, flame wars have started over partition schemes.  So, separate out
> as you see fit.  I rarely use more that 2 or 3 partitions).  Now you
> have a clean install with no kruft.  Boot into your new install.
>
> Step 4:
> Format and mount /dev/sda2 as, say, /data, for example.
>
> Step 5:
> Mount your backup drive /mnt/hd, for example, and then (!)
> cd /mnt/hd
> chown -R <newuser>:users .
>
> That should normalize the ownerships.  Adjust as needed for multiple
> users and if you changed your username.  Also, delete any old crap while
> your are at it.
>
> Step6:
> rsync your backup to the previously mounted /data DO NOT COPY any dot files
>
> Step7:
> Edit /etc/fstab so that, for example
>
> /dev/sda2    /home    ext4    defaults    1   1
>
> If your distro uses drive UUIDs, I leave that as an exercise to the reader.
>
> Step7:
> Reboot
>
> Step8:
> After you log in, a fresh clean set of dotfiles will be generated.
> Mount your backup drive and sift through any that you need to copy over
>
> .ssh
> .firefox
> .mozilla
> .bashrc
>
> and any others, as required (based on the software you will reinstall
> from your repositories).  Mostly I stop at the above and reconfigure the
> desktop and software configurations/defaults from scratch (and sometimes
> browser settings as well).  Sometimes .kde, .xfce, etc and .local and
> .config can get horrible mangled over time (new software, updates).
> Same goes for browsers - often just better to copy just the
> bookmarks.html file and manually reinstall plugins/extensions.
>
> a final reboot and DONE!
>
> Enjoy.
> -Ed
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 

Chuck Hast  -- KP4DJT --
Glass, five thousand years of history and getting better.
The only container material that the USDA gives blanket approval on.