Feature suggestions: optionally placing home folder into separate partition during ubuntu install

[李白|字一日]

2010/10/28 Aurélien Naldi <aurelien.naldi at gmail.com>

> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 4:34 AM, 李白|字一日 <calidion at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 2010/10/28 Evan Huus <eapache at gmail.com>
> >>
> >> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 8:01 PM, Daniel Gross <daniel.gross at utoronto.ca
> >
> >> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > The main benefit for such a setup, is that it allows reinstalling
> Ubuntu
> >> > without loosing the users data, which would be safely sitting in a
> >> > separate data partition.
> >>
> >> Putting it on a separate partition isn't actually necessary. Currently
> >> when Ubuntu is directed to install to a partition which previously had
> >> Ubuntu on it, it reinstalls only what is necessary, leaving things
> >> such as user settings intact. So this is effectively already done,
> >> just without the necessity for multiple partitions.
> >
> > I think it is why another partition is necessary.
> > sometimes users don't know which program causes their problems.
> > they want a clear reinstall except for their home folders.
> > and it is helpful to give a option to remove previous configurations in
> the
> > home folder.
>
> I may be wrong but this feature during the install only keeps the home
> folder (and other well-known data places?) and removes the rest so it
> should not leave random extra files or system configuration.
>

yes, and it is safe to keep data even if the system is not possible to
recover.


> Anyway, I have been using a separate home partition for quite a while
> as it is a nice way to switch between different OSs (including stable
> and devel ubuntu). It is always possible to do so using the manual
> partitionner, which is arguably a power-user tool.
>

:)


> >> > Taking this idea a step further, perhaps its possible to also preserve
> >> > the packages that were installed, so that these remain intact in the
> >> > data partition also. Perhaps a better name for the data partition
> could
> >> > be "User" partition, which includes all user configured, tailored,
> >> > created data. As opposed to the System partition which includes the
> base
> >> > OS only, and that can be reinstalled at will.
> >>
> >> Technically, every part of Ubuntu (including the base OS) is
> >> considered just an installed package, so doing this wouldn't be
> >> simple. I'm also having trouble seeing the use case for this - most
> >> people (in my experience) reinstall Ubuntu as a way to clean up cruft
> >> (or apparent cruft - a fresh install often feels faster just by
> >> placebo effect). Presumably they would want such packages removed,
> >> else why would they reinstall? They're may be something I'm missing,
> >> but I can't see "reinstalling while keeping current packages" to be a
> >> common desire.
>
> If you want to keep installed packages, you can upgrade instead of
> installing from scratch (if you don't skip a version or if you go from
> LTS to LTS, otherwise it may be painful).
> If you do not fear to fiddle with the command line, some of Debian's
> package management tools can help to reinstall the same selection of
> packages on your new system:
> see dpkg --get/set-selection for a rough approach and debfoster to
> build a list of packages you want to keep; taking dependancies into
> account.
> Of course it only works for packages that are available from apt
> repositories and is not so user friendly but I guess one could build a
> GUI based on the same principle.
>
> Alternatively, you can keep a list of packages you want and install
> them from the command-line. making it easier to build such lists and
> to apply them would make a nice feature for the software-center ;)
>
> Best regards.
>
> --
> Aurélien Naldi
>
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