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I installed 12.04 over a prior (experimental) install of 10.10. Somehow in the setup, I did not specify that /home be set to a separate (extended) partition (/dev/sda7). So the install set up /home on the /root partition, and I am now in a right serious muddle.

I would like to

1) tell it to set /home to sda7 (permanently so that it boots each time that way), and

2) move my existing /home from my old workhorse 10.04 to /home on this 12.04 computer. (I remember that one creates a tarball on the source computer, copies it over to the target computer, then extracts the tarball on the new computer. But I don't know, and don't seem to find, the correct steps to do this.

How to resolve this?

Any guidance will be much appreciated. I use my computer heavily, but don't seem to have many problems and consequently never get much past the noobie stage of Linux in terms of using the terminal, so your kindness in laying out the steps will be most helpful.

Volker Siegel
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Odysseus
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1 Answers1

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Don't feel bad, we've all been or are all still somewhat noobish at using the terminal. Also, love your use of the term right serious muddle.

All right, down to business :D

Question: Does your PC already have the /dev/sda7 partition created?

Answers:

1) As for how to move the /home partition permanently, read this guide https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving and this question: How can I move my /home directory to another partition if it's already part of the / partition?

from the guide:

This guide offers detailed instructions for migrating your home directory into its own dedicated partition.

2) Simple: (do all of this after the previous steps)

  • Just create the tarball on the original PC (seperate PCs, correct?) and move it over to your current PC with something like a USB stick or data CD.

  • Extract the tarball on the current PC in the /home folder while deleting the old files (keeping the ones you want, if any)

Community
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RPiAwesomeness
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