2 different distros using same /home with same user

[Basil Chupin]

On 05/08/12 12:54, Ric Moore wrote:
> On 08/04/2012 10:10 PM, Basil Chupin wrote:
>> On 05/08/12 06:01, Ric Moore wrote:
>>> On 08/04/2012 03:37 PM, Colin Law wrote:
>>>> On 4 August 2012 20:31, Hazan P�rez <hapk02 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Hey everyone,
>>>>>
>>>>> I have a laptop with Fedora installed in it, but I want to install
>>>>> Ubuntu on
>>>>> a new partition. I have a "regular" partition schema in that pc (one
>>>>> for /,
>>>>> another one for /home and the swap). I want to install Ubuntu on a 
>>>>> new
>>>>> partition but I need to have access to my user's data in /home. I 
>>>>> could
>>>>> simply use my user, with the same password, but I know for a fact
>>>>> that this
>>>>> would break my user's desktop config on BOTH distros... How can I do
>>>>> this,
>>>>> read/write access of my user's data, without f@#&!$) up my desktop
>>>>> config?
>>>>
>>>> You could have a normal home directory in the root Ubuntu partition
>>>> and then mount the original home partition at a mount point somewhere.
>>> Not good, when you consider that their config files could be in 
>>> conflict.
>>>
>>> I mount /opt as a separate partition. Then I link Desktop, Video,
>>> Music, Documents, Pictures, etc to /opt/ric/ where they reside.
>>> The trick would be to keep personal files, not system specific files,
>>> on the other directory. Then, when it's dist-upgrade time, you get
>>> your new dot-config files upgraded and not lose your personal files.
>>> Just umount /opt before the dist-upgrade. I've been doing that for 
>>> years.
>>>
>>> If you have a secondary hard drive it's even better, mounting that as
>>> /opt ...as in a failure you can reformat the / drive completely, and
>>> not lose your personal stuff. Just don't format the /opt
>>> partition/drive! Ric
>>
>> I like this idea VERY much.
>>
>> But I have a question: how do you "link" those directories to the ones
>> in /opt/ric/ ? I know you mean symlinks but exactly how do you
>> accomplish this? An example would be great.
>
> Ah... I added that bit in my last post to the OP. Of course the OP has 
> to create that extra partition and or drive first. Just moving things 
> to an existing /opt directory will get wiped out on a fresh install to 
> the / directory. Ric

Yes, I know that. What I wanted to know is what does the symlink look 
like and where is it placed - eg, simply in the "emtpy" newly created 
Documents directory as a link "@......." pointing to the 
opt/ric/Documents directory on the other drive or what? :-)

BC

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