OpenSUSE Install :: Using An SSD But Keeping Home Directory On Hard Drive?
Jun 14, 2011
I have a dual boot windows XP/OpenSuse 11.3 system running from a hard drive. They are both 32 bit in spite of the fact that the system can run 64 bit.
I would like to upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit (the wife insists, not yet a Linux possibility) and OpenSuse 11.4 64 bit, but having the programme files on an SSD for faster loading, with my data files on the existing hard drive.
I'm happy with the notion of getting the SSD going as a dual boot system. With Windows, as I understand it, it can tell it fairly easily where to look for the "my documents" folder on the hard drive.
However, the Home directory in Linux is not quite the same. How (if it's possible) could I run the SSD but use my existing Home directory on the hard drive?
I am installing a new hard drive to replace my old one that contained the /var and /home directories. I don't want to copy the whole directories, especially from home because there is a lot I don't need in it.What I need to do is set the mount points for the two partitions I have made on the new drive to /var and /home, but it will not let me do this with the other drive still running. I can't unmount /var and /home while the computer is running, and I would guess that having two drives with /var and /home on them would not work.
So, how can I set the mount points on the new drive and copy the files I need from the old to the new one? It would seem that would require two /home partitions to be mounted at the same time, but I don't think that is possible. I am sure there is some way, probably many ways knowing Linux so please,
I'm upgrading to 11.3 (from 11.2) and will be keeping my current home partition. Will this keep my browser favorites? Also, I read somewhere that in order for things to work properly after upgrading (without reformatting my /home partition) that I would have to keep the same username AND user UID...? Is that true? How do I make sure I have the same UID if so...?
I purposely set up a seperate home partition so that when I changed distro's or upgraded I would still have my files, and some settings intact. (I switched distros a lot when I first started using Linux.) I set up a "bin" folder (in home folder) that had a couple of programs I had downloaded to keep from having to set up and configure everything all over again every time I felt like changing distro's as well.
I have just installed Ubuntu desktop and I am using this pc as a file server. I have already installed Samba and have it operational and viewable by my windows computers. Now the problem is that I have 2 hard drives and the way that I have Samba set up it is sharing my home directory which is wonderful but my windows computers do not have access to the second hard drive. I search for several hours this morning trying to figure out how to do this but cannot figure it out.
Having read several threads and received excellent previous advice there are just a couple of points I want to check please before proceeding on laptop. I want to upgrade to 11.4 from 11.2. My disk setup is as follows:-
Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes 240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15505 cylinders Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes Disk identifier: 0x462d462c
[Code]..
If I select existing /home root and swap partitions, format root but prevent formatting of /home and use a different user ID I believe that will leave my existing data intact and will allow me to trial new os. Is this correct approach? If all goes well and when I have new system working correctly, what is best way make old user id date accessible. Can I simply create my old id on new system and will that allow me to access data when I log on with that id?
Second question; at present I have the ability to boot to openSUSE, OS/2 and windoze. (It used to be done entirely by Boot Manager but during my last Linux installation I messed this up a bit so now machine boots to grub and this offers all three operating systems but chain loads Boot Manager if I select OS/2)
When I do the new installation what should I select to retain this setup so that I still have access to windoze and OS/2 but when selecting linux have new 11.4 system run.
My friend just got a gaming laptop that he won't let anyone else use (his last one got infected when his girlfriend surfed on it for just one hour -- he refuses to use antivirus since he claims he knows how to keep clean, but he doesn't trust others).
Because I used Linux a bit once, I said to him what if I could promise not to make any changes to your hard drive, and I told him that I was pretty sure I could boot to a live cd and then only write files to a usb key. He's actually willing to let me try (I showed him some linux sites I was looking at, and he believes me that we can do this).
1) Is there anything I either MUST do or else must NOT do to make sure I make no changes to his laptop's hard drive? And so that any changes are only going to go on the usb drive I hook up?
2) Since he's got an i7 processor, I assume I should get a version of ubuntu that supports 64 bits, right?
It's been about three days since I've made Ubuntu my OS and I'm quite surprised to see, when I tried it first via wubi, that it actually reads NTFS partitions.It made backing up easy for me though now is it still alright that I still keep them NTFS or should I now start converting them to ext4? Except for my external hard drive.and what's the difference with ext3 and ext4? I was shown these options when I tried formatting my hard drive.
My other hard drive has two partitions which was done when I installed windows a few years back..If I would to reformat should I combine these partitions into one and make new partitions via that?
I'd like to install Lucid on a spare hard drive I have, so I can do my bit for testing it. I have a feeling that if I just burn the latest alpha .iso and install from that, it will replace my current GRUB, whereas I would prefer to simply add the Lucid install as an option in my current GRUB.
Of course I might be wrong, I just wanted to check before I went ahead with it. I was unable to find the info I needed via searching.
I have a netbook (Acer Aspire One ZG5) with ubuntu only partitioned this way:
/ swap /home
Since this ubuntu is 10.04 upgraded many times (since 8.04) I want to make a fresh install, and also want to take the oportunity to install and give a try to meego, so I want to...
/ ubuntu / meego swap (need to expand) /home (ubuntu)
My question is can I keep my current /home partition (which is encripted) and use it with my new 10.10? How?
I have 9.04 in my laptop and I want to make a clean install of Lynx.
My home partition is sda7 (ext4), so in the partition step during the install I'm telling the installer to use the partition as ext4 but don't format it (I'm explicitly checking sda6 as / mount point and set to format as ext4).
On the next step I see disabled options regarding the access to my home folder and "Require my password to log in and decrypt my home folder" is checked.
My current home partition is not an encrypted partition, so I am not sure of what will happen. I just want it to mount it and access it as Ext4, not encrypt it.
I also have a Private folder in my home partition, what will happen to it? Will I be able to mount it afterwards?
I get this error when I boot opensuse default and fail safe. It takes me to a console log in, which works. This happened after new kernel install in Linux Mint, which is unbootable atm. I can boot windows, bsd but no Linux.
I have just followed the instructions here: Upgrade/Supported - openSUSE to upgrade from version 11.1 to 11.2. When it was upgrading the system, by using: It had problems with a couple of rpms (one oppenofice extras and the other i cant remember). I went away for a moment and when i returned the computer was blocked. I whaited to no avail. I pushed the power button and turned of the PC. I started it again, and in the boot menu it still said version 11.1, but the background was not that of 11.1, but that of 11.2. I booted but did not started X windows, worse still my /home/ directory is empty!
I am having a problem setting up an encrypted home directory with openSUSE 11.3. I used Yast User and Group Management to edit an existing user to encrypt the home directory and the user.key and user.img files were created in the /home directory. I tried it out and logged in as user and created a new file. I logged out and logged in as a different user and was able to see the newly created file in the first users home directory.
I figured I did something wrong so I went back to Yast and deleted the user. I deleted the /home/user directory using file manager su mode. I tried again to create a new user with an encrypted home directory using Yast and now when Yast tries to write the changes I get an error: "pam_mount is already setup for user. Use --replace to replace the existing entry." I do not know how to proceed from here except to try with a different user name as I do not understand what the error message means and what command to use --replace with.
My machine telling me that my home directory is running out space,It is said 95% in usage.Try to delete the big unwanted files in users (just two user in my machine),df ing, but the home usage status keep on 95%.
I'm using Ubuntu 9.04 and I want to move to 10.10. The upgrade path would be very long so I want to do a fresh install. I have twisted a little bit my Gnome appearance (theme, icons in menu bar, etc.). I would like to install it, keeping all of my files in my home folder but using fresh visual settings from Maverick. What should I do?
I want to do something that would make my life easier. Problem:
1. I use OpenSUSE as my main OS for over 2 years now. BUT I like playing with a flavor of the month OS.
2. Virtual OS installs are not my cup of tea. a) You don't get a "true" feeling for the OS without it being installed on metal. b) I have a OLD cpu and virtual anything is painfully slow.
Solution: Split the /home directory into three partitions.
1. Shared /home partition holding all visible data files
2. OpenSUSE /home partition having all the hidden .files and .directories for its configuration.
3. Flavor of the month OS /home partition having all the hidden .files and .directories for its configuration.
Reasoning: I can therefore install another OS or Distro and just format and install to 2 partitions. I still have all my documents and files in a separate shared partition.
Issues: 1. I understand why they made the configuration files in /home for multiple users, but when someone wants to keep trying out different things it causes problems. 2. I don't want to place my files on my NAS. I have the same issue. My config files are saved in the NAS/home/and I can't share it without headaches. Doesn't solve my issue. 3. A symbolic link (soft) won't work since it will not update itself if files are moved. 4. Drop Box won't solve my issue and just take up space. 5. Syncing the /home/ folders between the two would take double the space. Just an issue with videos music and pictures. 6. If I make any changes won't this causes issues with the operating system and applications placing .config and defaults to the wrong place?
Solution I can't figure out how to process:
1. Save my .config files on a separate partition.
2. Making a link for each folder from the SUSE or Flavor of the month's /home folder to the storage /home folder located on a separate partition.
I just installed suse 11.3 on formatted partitions (5GB swap, 30GB / and 500GB /home). Just after the installation, My computer showed 25.2GB of /home to be used. When I do:
Code: dyn-0a2a1f40:/ # df -h .....
That seem to be roughly correct because since yesterday I've been running a program that constantly writes logs and other data files and plots, which might have accumulated a few GB's. It is also collaborated by the output of
Code: dyn-0a2a1f40:/ # du -sk /home 10548452 /home
I'm not hard-up on space right now but storage has been dear until the recent past. Also out of curiosity, the size of the /home partition is shown as 493 instead of the 500GB allocated while the swap also lists only 4GB instead of 5GB. Below is the output for fdisk -l in case anyone needs it:
I've created a guest user in the group "user." I'd like to limit its read access to its own home directory. However, by navigating through File system>home it's able to read my home directory. I was under the impression that users were limited to their own home directories. Am I missing something, or is there a group I can assign this guest to, to limit its read access to its own home directory? I've read about Pessulus (I use Gnome), but that seems to be geared toward limiting access to applications, not directories.
Ideally, I'd like to create a group that cannot navigate through any files except its own home directory. But it seems that if I try to do that, the guest user will not be able to execute any applications. I've read all the posts (and other forums) I could find about creating such a limited account, but the chroot jail is beyond my understanding. I get the feeling that it's geared toward networks.
Using SUSE 11, I'm trying to change my existing login user id HOME directory to use encryption. I use YAST to do this, just by clicking the ENCRYPTION box inside the USER AND GROUP MANAGER tool.I receive this error message -- "Not enough disk space left to copy existing data".Which file system do I need to add space to?Here are the filesystem existing sizes --
I would like to increase the storage space available to users. I am planning on adding another 120gb hdd and want it available to users in their home space. Is that possible? Also, what happens if you change hardware? If I changed my cd drive to a dvd-rw will suse 11.2 simply find the change and update the system (like in windows)
I want to dual boot openSUSE 11.2 and Windows 7. I already have Windows 7 installed but I have encountered multiple issues in the past with trying to make dual boots. Usually when I install Linux, GRUB decides it wants to go into world domination mode, and "breaks" my Windows installation. I have reason to believe this is because the distros I use come with legacy GRUB, (v0.97) and for some odd reason it lacks commands such as "update-grub" etc. This means I cannot add Windows 7 to the boot menu without going into extreme complications, which have NEVER, I repeat NEVER succeeded. When I boot the Windows drive directly, I get some error about GRUB not finding the device, and it puts me into a grub rescue command line. Now I am no expert in this field at all, but wouldn't that mean that GRUB wrote itself to the MBR of...oh I don't know, ALL of my hard drives? I really want to install openSUSE 11.2, but from bad experience I am really put off as I know that it ships with legacy GRUB v0.97.I am also running Fedora 13 at the moment, I have quite an experimental dual boot running..been trying to get GRUB 2 for hours now, it is definitely there but no commands work, "upgrade-grub-from-legacy" and "update-grub" return with command not found. I've heard this is just a bug but can anybody confirm that there will definitely be a way for me to "fix" my windows installation after it gets "broken" by GRUB?Second idea, unplug my windows hard drive while openSUSE installs?
I did an installation of SUSE 11.2 on a new SCSI hard drive. Keeping the old hard drive separate. I remembered there was some info on the old hard drive I wanted.
I added this to the system and mounted a partition. I then copied the data over. Then I umounted the partition rebooted the machine and removed the hard drive.
However the machine will now not boot without this hard drive even though its not mounted. Not sure what the error message im given means I think it could be trying to fchk it.
Do I need to do something more like remove /dev/sdd ?
i have download openSUSE and can't get it to mount on my hard drive i try and try but it sill won't stay on the hard drive. i like what i see on this os but can't use it.oh the PC im trying to put this os on is a hp m8530f a very good PC at that but i want to use this openSUSE.
I'm using opensuse 10.2 when I rebooted the my pc I got the message (in the url).P0216_171010 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!I can not boot into tty1 or tty3,5. I tried to repair with Opensuse CD but can not.
j have just installed suse linux 11.2 on my pc , the problem i am having is i cant use my windows hard drive . i have downloaded and inatalled NTFS-3G and still it wont work . i can access the windows hard drive and look at what is on it ,ie pics , music ,films.
I've added a 1TB hard drive as a second hard drive on my PC, mostly because my home partition is full of music and movies, but I am unsure of where to mount it (or what to mount it as). "Yast Partitioner" suggested /tmp /srv or /localI basically want a storage solution for media files which can be accessed by multiple users (including a windows PC using samba)
I've got a weird bug sinds I've updated to 11.4. On boot, the main hard drive isn't recognized as /dev/sda but it changes from time to time (probably according to other removable medias plugged in or not). It has been sdb, sde... but not sda anymore.
The trouble is that it boots and then it tries to find /dev/sda2 (the root partition). As it doesn't find it asks me sether he should take "SAMSUNG...whathever...-part2". Answering Yes solves the problem. But then, if I change in Grub the /dev/sde2, it still keeps changing of name. How could I have my hard drive back to /dev/sda2 ?
I have a Chrome OS .iso that I can booting from CD but only in text mode [the computer has issues] and I want to live install it to the hard drive, but all I have is the linux prompt. Is there a command to do that? I tried install, but I still don't know what to do.[I'm fine with a complete install overwriting everything]
I got a new laptop, a Dell D400. I want to swap my hard-drive from my old laptop into the new one, and did so... but then got an error stating that my CPU didn't support PAE.
As far as I was aware I hadn't actually installed a kernel with PAE enabled [as I always pick a real-time kernel for audio work]: but then read that lots of the newer distibutions are enabling PAE by default [which is what's caused the problem].
Is there an easy way of disabling PAE in the existing kernel? Or would it be easier to downgrade to another version of OpenSUSE? I'm on 11.2.
