switching distros

[Pastor JW]

On Wednesday 30 April 2008 03:29:12 pm Chris G wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 03:18:21PM -0700, Pastor JW wrote:
> > Back abit someone mentioned they had installed Ubuntu and there was
> > something to the effect of not seeing the users from a different
> > (Mandriva I think) distro.  I can't find the message although I KNOW I
> > saved it!  Evidently they had just formatted the system partition and
> > installed Ubuntu and left the user partition alone.
>
> I *hope* you/they mean the /home partition and not the /usr partition,
> it's the /home partition that has users' home directories (and
> configuration) on it.

Yes, that would be the partition I was talking about.  


> >                      Mention was made that the User ID number was
> > different (500 instead of 1000 or something like that).  Can this be done
> > and perhaps edit the User ID to fit the new system?  It would seem a much
> > easier way to go when upgrading to Ubuntu than having to start all over
> > and re-setup your environment from scratch!  I suppose it isn't possible
> > since I'd actually like to do it and really have not the time in my day
> > to re-setup my working environment!
>
> It's perfectly possible, all you need to do is edit the /etc/passwd
> file so that the user ID and group ID match those you see on the files
> in the users' home directories in /home.  At least that's how I'd do
> it (being a command line junkie).
>
> Actually now I think about it you can probably do it when you add the
> users to your new installation, depending on the tool/utility you use
> to add them you may be able to set the user ID and group ID when you
> create them.

I may just give it a try.  Not this week though as I have a couple of fairly 
demanding brides to deal with until next Monday!

> Ask for more help if you don't understand what I'm on about, it's
> always difficult to gauge how much someone knows.

Thanks!  I'm an old Amiga person till my last machine died 2 years ago.  Ran a 
BBS from 1979 until 2006, moved to Amiga in 1985 with 0.92 workbench.  Just 
your basic normal guy! 

-- 
73 de N7PSV aka Pastor JW <n><   PDGA# 35276
http://the-inner-circle.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_original_inner_circle
http://h.webring.com/hub?ring=universalministr
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