bruno321

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Hello! I'm now using Kubuntu 6.10 on my principal PC. I will be getting a new one, so I'll do a clean install of Kubuntu 7.10. Should I restore the old 6.10 home folder? I mean, just copy and paste it, let's say. Or how should I proceed?

I am talking about the config folders, the hidden ones... I'm intrigued as to how it would work (I'm fairly new to linux, I've never done an update like this one). Perhaps I should just copy the folders of the applications I will be using again?

Also, what other backup advices can you give me? When I do clean installs, I like to make them clean, I mean, the less configuration files I carry onto the new installation the better, but some things are a pain to configure... What other folders should I take a look at?

Thank you!

amosf

You can use cp -a

or put it all in a big tarball with tar.

I shift my home around from time to time.

Last night dragged /home over the ether from a mandriva box to a new slack install

syg00

As above, I prefer "cp -a ..."
I'd also advise you to set up a separate partition for /home. Copy the /home, then do the install. Same named user(s) will get recognised on install.
I always use the alternate CD so I can assign mountpoints to partitions, and select whether the need formatting. Not sure how the standard (Ubuntu) installer handles this.

Makes it easier to do an install, then go back to a previous version in need. User data survives.

bruno321

Oh, so I should make a partition which would be the /home folder? So in that partition, should I actually put the home folder or should I put all the users' folder's? (i.e. how does the partition work? As the container of the home folder or actually as the home folder?)

So, first I prepare that partition and then I install Kubuntu and tell it to set it as the home folder. How would that work? The programs that come with 7.10 will recognize the configuration files and work with those configs? Will there be a problem if the versions are different? Same questions for the new programs I would be installing after the OS is set.

And a noob question: doing cp -a is exactly the same as doing some good old copy-paste, isn't it?

Thanks!

archtoad6

Just the users' folders. mount causes the contents of the mounted file system (partition) to become the contents of the mount point. If your new home partition had a "home" dir., then mounting it on /home (in the root file system) would produce /home/home/...

Sorry, don't use Kubutu, so don't know.

I can't prove it from the man page, but I'm pretty sure cp copies hidden files w/o being told. OTOH, your file manager may or may not be set to display hidden files, & so they may or may not be copied in a copy-paste.