linuxgeek: Re: Changing location of /home WAS: Re: [LINUX_Newbies] new to linux, have not down loaded yet need help

Sorry, I didn't even finish reading it beyond the first paragraph, but
thank you for proving my point. You may find your rock now.

Justin

J wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 22:32, Drmgiver <drmgiver@gmail.com
> <mailto:drmgiver%40gmail.com>> wrote:
> > Ubuntu is what I use and I love it. I have recently downloaded the
> > release candidate of 9.10 and I have never seen a quicker, more powerful
> > Linux before, I have a feeling you will love it. Now, unfortunately I
> > do not know how to do a lot of custom things like having your home
> > folder in a separate partition. But I hardly ever use anything else but
> > Ubuntu. I do use Windows every so often when I want to play a certain
> > risque 2d MMO (lol Gee I wonder what that is) but usually I am in
> > Ubuntu. On another note, that raises a question. How do I set home
> > folder to a separate partition?
> >
> > Justin
>
> <everything else snipped>
>
> Well, Justin, interesting question. Us Elitist Creeps usually do it
> at install time via a custom partition scheme however sometimes our
> Elitist machines need a more Elite partitioning setup. So in those
> cases, we Elitist Creeps prefer to use a partitioning tool on either
> unallocated drive space or a fresh hard disk, and some quick edits to
> /etc/fstab.
>
> Allow me to venture into my limited Linux knowledge and explain the
> first part of my statement.
>
> In general, it's pretty Elitist to plan out a good partition scheme
> ahead of time. Letting the installer do whatever it does by default
> is good for most users, but we Elitists prefer having control over the
> system for a specific reason. Perhaps, like JimT, we have need for it
> due to users. Or perhaps we're doing something like putting the OS on
> a small onboard hard disk, and putting home directories (or other data
> areas) onto SAN or NAS storage, or even an external storage device
> like a commercial RAID enclosure.
>
> So, we perform the installation and when the installer gets to the
> partitioning phase, we chose custom partitioning. How to get there
> varies from OS to OS. For Red Hat, you choose Custom partitioning at
> the first partitioning screen. For SuSE there's another way. Same
> deal for Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Crunchbang/InsertUbuntuOfTheDayHere, there's a
> place to choose "Custom Partitioning" in the installer.
>
> From there, you just create your partitions and assign them mount
> points... simple as that. In many cases, you really want at least
> three basic partitions. /boot, /root, and swap. OR, in the case of
> the OP, JimT, he may want something more like 4 partitions, /boot,
> /root, /home, and swap.
>
> From there, the installer does the rest.
>
> Now, I shall endeavor to extrapolate the second part of my statement.
> You want to move /home. Why would you do this? I, using my Elitist
> Creep experience can think of several reasons for wanting to do this.
> You originally installed into a second partition on one disk along
> with Windows in a dual boot capacity, and now your Linux filesystem is
> too small. You want to enhance system security (A very Elitist Creep
> concept, I might add) by segregating /home from the rest of the
> system. After all, we Elitists don't want those lesser users messing
> with OUR filesystem. And there are many others beyond. But it is,
> for us Elitist Creeps, at least, a very easy task.
>
> I'll give you one snarky example dripping with all the Elitist Creep
> Condescension I can muster, mister.
>
> Lets say you have a 20GB hard disk that has your Linux install on it.
> That's very unElite and you want more storage, a very reasonable idea,
> and you don't want to go and reinstall. That's a great idea... and
> simple to accomplish.
>
> SO, for your new space, you install a 250GB disk. "Well, now what?"
> you ask... IT's simple, and very 31337.
>
> First, you use fdisk or parted (two tools written by elitists). Lets
> say you want to add just one 250GB partition and use the entire disk
> for /home. So, using parted or fdisk, or gparted, or kparted, or
> <insert your partitioning tool of choice (only us Elitist Creeps use
> fdisk or parted; the others are GUI based partitioning tools, and Bob
> knows we Elitists Creeps don't like GUIs at all.) Now that you've
> created them you need to format them.
>
> Here, I do apologize. My Elitist Ideals have prevented me from
> actually using something as lowly as a GUI to format a disk, thus I
> must resort to that Most Elitist of Creep Tools, the terminal. From
> there, I'd simply issue the most Elite command mke2fs -j /dev/hdX
> where X is the letter of your new drive. Of course, if your're super
> Elite and using SATA or SAS, your drive will be sdX, not hdX.
>
> Now you're set. You can of course test this, and all Elitists like to
> revel in their Sk1llz0rZ by manually mounting this new partition and
> making sure it works. So you'd issue the 1337 command mount like so:
>
> mount /dev/hdX /mnt
>
> ( or /media/disk, or into some arbitrary mount point you create for
> this task). (Hint, us Elitists LOVE arbitrary mount points. Why I
> just sit around all day making up new and exciting mount points,
> randomly mounting partitons in a most Elitist manner. Of course, I'm
> too Elite to use TYPICAL mount points).
>
> Now you can copy, create, open and dElite files from that new disk,
> just to be sure.
>
> Following that, you have only two more steps to being enjoying your
> NEW /home.
>
> The first thing you want to do is edit the file /etc/fstab. In there,
> you'll want to add a line for your new /home. It'll look something
> like this:
>
> /dev/hdX /home ext3 defaults 0 0
>
> Of course, us Elitists usually change defaults to a strange and
> mystical super secret default permissions scheme that we discuss
> amongst ourselves on secret web forums and mailing lists that you have
> to be Elite to join, but defaults work in most cases for most people.
>
> Now that you've edited /etc/fstab and saved that file, you have just
> two more things to do...
>
> First, you need to copy the contents of /home to the new /home. SO,
> have you mounted your new disk to /mnt or some arbitrary mount point?
> Good. Copy the ENTIRE contents of /home (cp -a usually will do the
> trick) to your arbitrary mount point. After that's done... and it
> could take a while if you have a lot of data in /home, it's time to
> reboot.
>
> Now, you COULD do the super Elite thing and just remount your
> filesystems, but honestly, when you're mucking about with filesystems
> it's sometimes good to just reboot and start from scratch with your
> new scheme... and this also applies if you should be simply resizing
> partitions as well.
>
> Once that's done, you should have a running system.
>
> BUT WAIT... THere's more. Here's an Elitist Tip from me to you.
> Where did all the original data go? It's still there. Hopefully,
> you've read this through and got here BEFORE you did everything else.
> So the problem now is, you used to have stuff in a directory called
> /home. Now you have stuff in a disk that's mounted to /home. BUT,
> all that original data is still there. It's still on your disk, and
> untouchable for the most part.
>
> What to do? What to do? The simplest answer is often the Elitist.
> You MOVE instead of COPY from /home to your new disk prior to
> rebooting. OR, you just delete the contents of /home before
> rebooting. 6 of one, half dozen Elitist shoulder shrugs of the other.
>
> And there you have it. Now you know, in the basic sense with fairly
> Elitist Experience and Creepiness how to move /home, both during
> installation and on a live system.
>
> Go forth now youngling with your new found knowledge whilst I retreat
> to the Most Excellent Halls of Elitistia to contemplate teh n00bz and
> the intricacies of my most Elitist ponderings...
>
> Yours In Elitist Creepiness,
> You Betcha!
>
> The Dread Pirate Jeff
>
> --
>
> Mike Ditka - "If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have
> given us arms."
>
>