2 different distros using same /home with same user

[Ric Moore]

On 08/04/2012 04:24 PM, Hazan Pérez wrote:
> El 04/08/12 15:01, Ric Moore escribió:
>> On 08/04/2012 03:37 PM, Colin Law wrote:
>>> On 4 August 2012 20:31, Hazan Pérez <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 better, but I'd have to do all the linking manually :/

That takes about 5 minutes.
Just mv the existing directories one at a time so you don't forget one.
mkdir /opt/hazan
mv Desktop /opt/hazan
ln -s /opt/hazan/Desktop Desktop
mv Pictures /opt/hazan
ln -s /opt/hazan/Pictures Pictures
...and so on to the ~new~ /opt partition or drive. That's the directory 
Caldera used for licensed applications and other oddities.

>
> There should be a way to have a same user with different systems,
> changing the .config directory for something like .config_ubuntu, same
> with the files from the DE, but I guess that's just asking too much.

It's all crazier than hell nowadays, so don't suggest too many new 
changes. <grins> Ric



-- 
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
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