[xubuntu-users] Wiki - Re: How to organize your disk to simplify reinstalls

Fri Jan 10 11:24:32 UTC 2014

There are various guides about Linux file system organization. This is
outside the scope of the Xubuntu documentation, or a Xubuntu-specific
wiki (page).

Every application handles their files differently, and the most
important thing is to know that there are hidden files. You can always
rename them to something else and see if that fixes the problem if you
aren't aware what's causing your issue. (If it even is anything related
to configuration files.)

Cheers,
Pasi

On 10/01/14 13:11, George DiceGeorge wrote:
> Michael wrote:
> [Is anyone aware of an article that describes this?]
>
> Is there a wiki about this,
> or a wiki about Xubuntu,
> with links to a wiki about Thunderbird
> with links to discussions on thunderbird,
> I too have a spaghetti mess of old emails i want to sort some time.
>
> The great thing about wikis is that as well as reading them
> we can write to them,
> edit them.
> improve them.
>
> If there is an xubuntu wiki could it be linked to in the footer of all
> these emails
> so we know where to go to read and update xubuntu info?
>
> Before the release of the next LTS please!
>
> [g]
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Michael Shiloh
> Sent: Friday, 27 December, 2013 22:26
> To: xubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Subject: [xubuntu-users] How to organize your disk to simplify
> reinstalls (was: Re: Desktop fails to start after login - after 13.04
> to 13.10 upgrade
>
> This is an excellent discussion, I have learned lots.
>
> I too have been trying to figure out what to put things to simplify
> reinstalls or recovery.
>
> I've been using Ubuntu One to back up all my files of importance, except
> for big files like pictures, music, and videos. Those get backed up to a
> local disk, along with my entire home directory.
>
> I have one laptop at my workshop and one at home. They both sync the
> Ubuntu One directory, so I have a backup there, although I'm not 100%
> convinced that Ubuntu One syncs very well.
>
> As Benjamin points out, the problem is the various local configuration
> files, e.g. .config and others. Some we want to keep, some we want to
> discard and rebuild.
>
> Case in point: Before I understood how Thunderbird worked, I ended up
> with 3 different email folders, some of which are valuable archives of
> accounts I no longer have access to, others are duplicates of my active
> accounts and could be deleted. I use Thunderbird for all my email, so it
> has 4 active email accounts, and archives of several inactive accounts.
> Some day I need to sort this out, but meanwhile every time I re-install
> I just copy the whole mess over. It's a huge waste of space but doesn't
> really cause trouble.
>
> I think what Benjamin (and me, and others) are getting to is that there
> is a while mess of dot files and dot directories, some of which we would
> like to copy and restore to a new installation, and others of which we
> would like to discard and recreate.
>
> I think key to navigating this is understanding what all these files
> are, what programs or functions they belong to, whether they can be
> recreated or should be saved, whether they duplicate something that
> exists in the cloud, etc. etc.
>
> Is anyone aware of an article that describes this?
>
> Of course the combined wisdom of this mailing list embodies that
> information, which is one of the many reasons I subscribe and read. I
> thank you all for sharing your wisdom.
>
> Michael
>
> On 12/27/2013 01:48 PM, Benjamin Shadwick wrote:
>> There's so much baggage stored in your home directory, though, that it
>> seems like preserving it across a reinstall would negate half of the
>> advantages of doing a reinstall in the first place.
>>
>> Case in point: Chris' issue was solved by getting rid of a corrupt xfce4
>> config in his home directory. Chances are, if he had /home on a separate
>> partition and reinstalled the OS, the problem would still be there.
>>
>> Personally, I just make backups of /home, /etc, and /opt (the latter
>> being
>> where I install stuff that doesn't come from an APT repo) to a remote
>> drive
>> (e.g. another computer on the LAN) so that I can hand-migrate stuff back
>> after a reinstall.
>>
>>
>> Regarding using synaptic to reinstall packages: Does it know to mark
>> dependency packages as automatically installed, or does it end up
>> marking
>> everything as manually installed? I hate having dependencies listed as
>> manually installed, because it means they don't then get removed if I
>> remove the only packages that depend on them.
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Cody Smith
>> <cody.smith9202 at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> also, on the subject of making reinstallations easier, a seperate /home
>>> partition goes a long way. as for packages, synaptic has a method of
>>> generating a list of installed packages that can be plugged into
>>> synaptic
>>> on the new install so that it can install those packages again one go.
>>> instructions here:
>>> http://askubuntu.com/questions/168352/how-do-i-generate-a-package-download-list
>>>
>>>
>>> just make sure to save the generated package list somewhere it won't be
>>> lost in the reinstall, such as the /home partition.
>>>
>>> --c_smith
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Benjamin Shadwick
>>> <benshadwick at gmail.com
>>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Closest thing I can find is ~/.cache/upstart/startxfce4.log or
>>>> possible
>>>> /var/log/lightdm/*.log, but I'm not sure how useful they are.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 11:31 AM, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 07:21:54PM +0000, Chris Green wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>     - While not logged into the GUI desktop, rename the
>>>>> ~/.config/xfce4
>>>>>>>     directory and then try to log into the desktop. This will
>>>>>>> result
>>>>> in the
>>>>>>>     use of default XFCE desktop settings for your account.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> OK, I'll try that.
>>>>>>
>>>>> ... and now I get a desktop after logging in!  :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you, I'll have to recustomise it of course but that's not
>>>>> too much
>>>>> work, it's not very intricately configured.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is there any way to work out what broke things - i.e. is there
>>>>> some sort
>>>>> of xcfe error log that will tell me what I broke?
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> Chris Green
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> xubuntu-users mailing list
>>>>> xubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>>>>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
>>>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> xubuntu-users mailing list
>>>> xubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>>>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
>>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> xubuntu-users mailing list
>>> xubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>>> Modify settings or unsubscribe at:
>>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>

-- 
Pasi Lallinaho (knome)                      » http://open.knome.fi/
Leader of Shimmer Project and Xubuntu       » http://shimmerproject.org/
Graphic artist, webdesigner, Ubuntu member  » http://xubuntu.org/