On Sunday 20 Jul 2003 6:28 am, Inhabitant of Zion wrote: > > When you install Mandrake, you have the option of "use existing > > partitions", and then you can choose to only format the system > > partition, /. > > > > by leaving the /home partition intact, either Red Hat or Mandrake > > will have access to them. Of course, some of the config files and > > such may be out or sync, but you can just delete any that cause > > you probs. > > > > As always, it would be a good idea to backup your home dir to > > cdrom or something, just in case. > > I have tried this myself. I can say it has some pitfalls to avoid: > > 1) Make sure you don't give your self the same username as on the > old system or you won't be able to log on. > 2) All the files will be locked to the user on your old system. > 3) You will need to know where to find all the hidden files that > hold things like filter rules and all you favourites for Mozilla > etc if you plan to chmod them and swop them across to your new user > home directory. > I've never had any problem like that, nor ever heard of it before. Of course if you back up to a cd they will all be read-only, so you will have to deal with that when you copy them back.
One thing to watch, though, is that if you have more than one user you *must* add the users back in the same order, or you will get a confusion of user ids - possible what caused the problem described above? I simply made a list of all the users and their ids, and used that to make sure that I matched them in the new install. Everyone's home directory was then readable without any problems. As long as your /home is on a separate partition you should have no problems (though back up is still the only sensible route). If it isn't, another partition if you have one, or a cd backup would have to be used. In that case, when you start the install, choose to manually partition and give yourself a /home partition then leave the rest of the space for Mandrake to deal with. Anne
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