problem: hoary, after update no gdm login (2 x Ubuntu on one hard disk)

[Ari Torhamo]

On ke, 2005-02-16 at 22:50 +0100, Hervé Cauwelier wrote: 
> Ari Torhamo wrote:
> > I just re-installed Hoary to get
> > back to business.
> 
> If you reinstall Hoary everytime you encounter a problem, you won't do 
> much business! ;-)


True :-) My intention was to go to Windows to (it can't be right to use
"to" so many times in row - sounds funny :) ask for help from the list,
but when I choose "Windows XP" in Grub menu, I noticed that Windows
won't boot. This resulted from installing Hoary array 4 several days
earlier, but I had complitely forgotten this problem (because I haven't
needed Windows :) Installing Hoary now again didn't change this thing.

Grub error message:
root (hd0/0)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

The best option to test Hoary might be, according to someone here on the
list (forgot who, sorry), to install two instances of Ubuntu - Warty and
Hoary. Apparently this shouldn't be a problem. I'll propably do this,
but I need to ask some questions first.

For some time now I have made a separate partition for my /home
directory to be able to quickly ... uhm... get back to business after
re-installation (no hassle of retrieving back data from the back-up
CDs). I noticed though that not all user data is saved to the /home
directory. I haven't studied this closely, but at least the saved
results from some default Gnome games weren't there. Propably something
else is missing too. What should I do to get all user data and settings
saved? Should I give some other directories a partition of their own
too? Then there are all the things I install after installing Ubuntu -
quite a many packages actually. And the system settings - can they be
saved somehow (relatively easily)? If anyone knows a good guide on this
subject, it would be nice to hear about it.

I would like to be able to use the same /home directory with both
installations. Can I just use the /home directory from the first
installation and mount it to the second. Can any problems occur when I
use the directory and files, changing from one Ubuntu installation to
another? I don't know why it wouldn't work, but I just want to be sure.

Kind regards,

Ari