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I am back now from our travels and had a chance to do a lot of googling/reading while away.
After reading the above suggestions, and lots more of googled up discussion, I finally went with:
ssh server
rsync from old computer across the lan to
a new directory in /home (called /oldhome) on the new computer.
So far this seem to work well and copied 13.92GB of user and hidden folders in less than one hour.
From /oldhome, I will copy all the user files into /home, and as I think possibly helpful, may copy hidden files as well. Any suggestions on which might be needed would be much appreciated.
A big part of my decision had to do with so many comments about the possibility of a GUI alternative mucking up the files in one way or another. Hard for me to understand why this should be, but I listen attentively.
The potential issue with GUIs is that they may make certain assumptions, typically not displaying/copying 'hidden' ie dot files and so on.
From the cli you have amore ctrl, but it does require that you know what you are doing.
The fact that you asked all those qns is a good sign.
This appears to have been a long term, continuing learning exercise. The new machine is happy as a clam, runs Chrome lightning fast.
However, the old machine is now wobbly. I upgraded it from 9.04 to 9.10, then to 10.04. On this computer, Firefox is happy as a clam, runs lightning fast. On the other hand, Chrome just sits there and spins, gives me lots of "page is unresponsive" messages, but eventually resolves the pages on some of the tabs that are open.
Clearly something went pear-shaped in the upgrade with respect to Chrome. In this sort of situation, is it best just to reinstall, or how does one go about a repair?
Also I have discovered a file in /home, named " my_500GB_MBR " that is 20.2GB in size. Under "Type", it says, "unknown".
I think this might have had something to do with a SimpleTech NAS that crashed many months ago, and having a Reiserf file format. Any ideas?
This appears to have been a long term, continuing learning exercise. The new machine is happy as a clam, runs Chrome lightning fast.
However, the old machine is now wobbly. I upgraded it from 9.04 to 9.10, then to 10.04. On this computer, Firefox is happy as a clam, runs lightning fast. On the other hand, Chrome just sits there and spins, gives me lots of "page is unresponsive" messages, but eventually resolves the pages on some of the tabs that are open.
Clearly something went pear-shaped in the upgrade with respect to Chrome. In this sort of situation, is it best just to reinstall, or how does one go about a repair?
Well, I know nothing about *buntu, so I can't be sure how safe their upgrades are. In theory, updating shouldn't be that problematic, and installing from zero shouldn't "fix" anything because anything that can go wrong will go wrong in your $HOME directory (after all, as a user you don't have write permissions in the rest of the system directories). So, provided that your version of chrome is not bugged, whatever the problem is, it probably lies somewhere under ~/.config/chromium/. You can confirm that by creating a new user account and trying chromium under that, or by deleting or moving the config files elsewhere.
You should also check if the problem is being created by the adobe flash plugin. It's always a good candidate when looking for problems.
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Also I have discovered a file in /home, named " my_500GB_MBR " that is 20.2GB in size. Under "Type", it says, "unknown".
You should try the "file" command over that file. It might say something more about what the file contains. If not, you can always try photorec over it. Maybe it can find some recognizable patterns inside.
Guboj, thanks for your comments. Being very much a noobie, I can understand some of your suggestions, but really have no idea how to go about implementing them.
Are you saying that I should create a new user in Ubuntu and try Chrome as that user? If no problem in the new user, what should I do to correct the problem in my own normal user account?
Alternatively "by deleting or moving the config files elsewhere." I assume the config file that you refer to should be " ~/.config/chromium/ ". If so, can I just rename it? Assuming that it is either deleted, moved, or renamed, does Chrome then create a new config account, and how does that happen? Should Chrome be closed before deleting or moving or renaming the appropriate file? Then restart Chrome, or restart the computer? Or what?
How would I "check if the problem is being created by the adobe flash plugin"?
How would I "try the "file" command or photorec over that file"?
Guboj, thanks for your comments. Being very much a noobie, I can understand some of your suggestions, but really have no idea how to go about implementing them.
Are you saying that I should create a new user in Ubuntu and try Chrome as that user?
Yes.
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If no problem in the new user, what should I do to correct the problem in my own normal user account?
Well, I have no idea on how to "correct" the problem. If it's a problem about the config files that would involve first locating the files, then finding the problem (by editing them, reading the -probably incomplete- documentation, finding the problematic entry and correcting or removing it). What I suggest is to erase the config (losing bookmarks, passwords, history, etc.) and starting with a fresh one. Not what I'd call a proper "solution", but if a clean user works ok then this fix should work for your user as well.
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Alternatively "by deleting or moving the config files elsewhere." I assume the config file that you refer to should be " ~/.config/chromium/ ". If so, can I just rename it?
Yes.
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Assuming that it is either deleted, moved, or renamed, does Chrome then create a new config account, and how does that happen? Should Chrome be closed before deleting or moving or renaming the appropriate file? Then restart Chrome, or restart the computer? Or what?
The usual method is: close chromium, delete (or move) the configs, start chromium again. It will surely ask you a few things, just like the first time you start it, because it has to create the config afresh. Chromium doesn't create any "account", it will create clean config files that are compatible with the chromium version you have installed in your system. No need to restart anything else.
As said, you lose the bookmarks and everything else. You might want to export the bookmarks first to save them, before deleting or moving the config.
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How would I "check if the problem is being created by the adobe flash plugin"?
There are a few ways. You can uninstall it. There can be more than one copy though, so double check that there's no flash plugin loaded. You can use "top" or "ps -A | grep flash" for that, in a terminal. Your desktop probably has also a process manager that you can check more visually. If there's a flash plugin loaded check the memory and cpu usage for that process.
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How would I "try the "file" command or photorec over that file"?
Just open a terminal, type "file /path/to/file". Obviously, change "/path/to/file" to match the path and file name for the file you want to check. It should report something back once you press enter.
Photorec also works in command line. I have no idea if *buntus install it by default or if its on their official repositories, you will have to check that yourself.
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