Moving users from Debian (using an existing /home)

[Adam McGreggor]

On Sun, Dec 02, 2007 at 07:16:44AM -0800, Bill Moseley wrote:
> I have a Debian Sid machine and considering installing Gutsy
> on it.  Probably Xubuntu since I'll likely not use Gnome (I currently
> use Icewm on that machine).

[...]

> My question is about how to map the UIDs from the old users to the
> new install.  Does the installation process provide for this?
> 
> How should I add the users that are in /home on the old drive?
> 
> - Should I create the users in the new OS and then hack the
> /etc/passwd entries so their UIDs and home dir match
> what was in Debian?
> 
> - Or should I create the new users and then chown -R their home
> directory?
> 
> - Or just do a normal install and copy their entries to /etc/passwd
> and /etc/shadow?

That's what I do...

> I realize I'll need to deal with their groups, too.

not quite so easy as copying /etc/group, as the Umbungo groups thing is
a little different, so I'd be more inclined to copy your existing
/etc/group somewhere, and trim it down to just those lines for your
users; skip all the GID <1000 entries (but note to whom you've given
sudo/adm/op/&c access, for incorporation).

If you've given perms on other files around the FS you'll need to re-do
those under Ubuntu.

YMMV, HTH

a