Moving the Home Partition - Problems

[spurtniq]

Followed these directions:

Move /home to it’s own partition January 29, 2006 (ref page)

on Natty Narwhal - Ubuntu 11.04.

- copied home to new partition newhome
- renamed old home to old_home
- edited /etc/fstab as follows:

/dev/sda2 /home ext2 nodev,nosuid 0 2

to point (so I thought) to the new home.

On newhome, I've got three primary folders:

lost+found
home / administrator

and in administrator is where I find all the usual files / file folders.

Full fstab below:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
/dev/sda2 	/home 		ext2 	nodev,nosuid 	    0 	    2
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=01606ff8-cae6-4f14-891d-b0e0f1c18bda /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1

When I reboot, it either tries to recreate home on the original partition (after checking for errors on bootup) or nothing works and I get a blinking cursor when I click on home for example.

Grub comes up ok (Dual boot - Ubuntu 11.04 / Win XP Pro)

Running GPartEd shows the following:

/dev/sda - 11.04 - main partition (ext4)
/dev/sda2 - newhome
/dev/sda3 - WinXP

I must've missed something. No idea what or where to go from here.

[rcgreen]

- renamed old home to old_home

If you renamed home to old-home, did you create
a home directory as a mount point for the new
partition?

[spurtniq]

If you renamed home to old-home, did you create
a home directory as a mount point for the new
partition?

If I have to ask, what exactly do you mean by that, I think one can safely assume I might not have.

I don't think in the instructions from the page I referenced for this, there was mention of or discussion of (at least not, I don't think) in the terms you're using,
creating a home directory as a "mount point".

I guess I need a little elaboration on that to be sure one as to whether I did or not and two, if I didn't how to best proceed.

Thanx

[Lostfarmer]

Is your username 'administrator' ? if not change it to the correct username, the name you used during install.
fstab shows it is mounted correct if it is on /dev/sda2.
Your 'ref page' link is bad, give correct link will help to see the steps you took.

[spurtniq]

Can't post the reference link YET. Not enough posts.

Copy / Paste everything but "(ref page)"

If you search the reference you should be able to get to
(I used Google) the page and the steps I suggested.

I was logged in as administrator. It's the only login.

[rcgreen]

When you list what is in your file system.

rcgreen@blue:/$ cd /
rcgreen@blue:/$ ls
bin    dev   initrd          lib         mnt   root  sys  var          winshare
boot   etc   initrd.img      lost+found  opt   sbin  tmp  vmlinuz
cdrom  home  initrd.img.old  media       proc  srv   usr  vmlinuz.old
rcgreen@blue:/$

One of the directories is home. If you renamed the original
one, there won't be one listed. Then create a new one with the command

sudo mkdir /home

Any other partitions you mount on your system, like your
replacement for home, need places to mount, as
specified in your fstab

/dev/sda2 	/home 		ext2 	nodev,nosuid 	    0 	    2

This means that the partition called /dev/sda2 is to be
mounted, or connected to the file system, at the directory
/home. An empty directory must exist at that location.

[spurtniq]

When you list what is in your file system.

rcgreen@blue:/$ cd /
rcgreen@blue:/$ ls
bin    dev   initrd          lib         mnt   root  sys  var          winshare
boot   etc   initrd.img      lost+found  opt   sbin  tmp  vmlinuz
cdrom  home  initrd.img.old  media       proc  srv   usr  vmlinuz.old
rcgreen@blue:/$

One of the directories is home. If you renamed the original
one, there won't be one listed. Then create a new one with the command

sudo mkdir /home

Any other partitions you mount on your system, like your
replacement for home, need places to mount, as
specified in your fstab

/dev/sda2 	/home 		ext2 	nodev,nosuid 	    0 	    2

This means that the partition called /dev/sda2 is to be
mounted, or connected to the file system, at the directory
/home. An empty directory must exist at that location.

Ok, here's what's happening:

I've modified this

# proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
/dev/sda2 	/home 		ext2 	nodev,nosuid 	    0 	    2

to this:

# proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
/dev/sda2 	/home/administrator 		ext2 	nodev,nosuid 	    0 	    2

this gives me duplicate directories none of which point to the primary folders. I have files in the Downloads directory. I have installed Chromium. I can see the folders / files, but, they don't load.

and this

# proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
/dev/sda2 	/ 		ext2 	nodev,nosuid 	    0 	    2

no file check - no OS

and this:

proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
/dev/sda2 	/ 		ext2 	nodev,nosuid 	    0 	    2

"could not update ICE authority"
"gconf-sanity-check-2 problem with configuration server status 256"
"could not create desktop /home/administrator/.nautilus"

recreated administrator folders on root

booted live USB, copied files from /home/administrator to root

no difference

I've got a /home folder on the main partition

and

/home/administrator on newhome

It's not reading, getting the right permissions, finding the correct files / folders on load.

Do I need to chmod folders on newhome? If so, with what permissions?

What SHOULD be the appropriate settings in /etc/fstab?

What tests can I run to help you help me?

Thanx

[Lostfarmer]

To let you know I am not a long time linux user and do make errors.

Is this the How-To you used?..
Move /home to it’s own partition Ubuntu Blog

Have never used 'cpio' and can not make any commant on it usage.

{I have used (from a live cd) 'cp -a /media/sda1/home/* /media/sda8/'
Then edited fstab to point /home to sda8. Did not remove the original /home files as they will not be seen once booted, from a live cd they will be seen}

I've got a /home folder on the main partition
and
/home/administrator on newhome

Rename /home/adminitrator to /1home/administrator.
sda2/administrator should be mounting on /home when booted, so it will then be seen as /home/administrator. two /home/adminstrator folders will be bad.

You are using a live cd , sda2 should have /administrator/ with file in it, not /home/administrator/.

If you look at /old_home, does it have one folder names /administrator ?

If you look at sda2/adminitrator and /old_home/adminitrator, they both look the same ?

I'm asking the above to be sure files were copied under the correct paths.

My home on a separate partition.

# /home was on /dev/sda1 during installation
#moved /home to sda8
UUID=23e80f1d-1a07-4f3d-a1f7-bd6024f8efd9 /home           ext3    defaults        0       2

[Lostfarmer]

Decided to move my /home from / for xubuntu to a common home with 2 other linuxs. My common home is sda8 and labled HOME and was mounted in /media. ' xchris' is my xubuntu user name.

prier to the move
the '$' indicates a terminal with root privileges.

 $ cd/home
$ ls   xchris
$ find . -depth -print0 | cpio --null --sparse -pvd /media/HOME
$ cd /media/HOME
$ ls mepis     xchris    igo

edited /ect/fstab (as written is pri post.)

When I rebooted
$ cd /home
$ ls mepis xchris igo

That is all I did and doing the cd and ls above shows /home was moved to sda8.

The old /home is still there but when it is booted , the new /home on sda8 is in use.

Hope you can make out what I did above and is helpful to you.

[spurtniq]

I can't even quote your hyperlink YET.

Thank you for all the info. Haven't had a chance to apply it yet.

Yes, that's the website I used to migrate.

I didn't use the cpio command. I booted from a live USB opened the partition as root and copy / pasted the folder. The only thing I might've missed is whether or not copy / pasting as root copies ALL files or whether or not I have to explicitly SHOW hidden files / folders.

But, then again, it did copy over the .config folder. And that's a hidden folder.

Thank you both for your time and attention. I'll try to get to this this afternoon and keep you posted as to my progress / success.