Hey gang!

Okay, a little history first. Last year, my PC crashed, well, more specifically: the OS (Arch Linux) died on me, something went very wrong during the upgrade...

Eh, so, what to do?
Okay, here's the big plan: install Xubuntu where Arch Linux used to be...but WITHOUT losing the /home partition, but instead linking it in afterwards.

I heard it can be done, and with Arch, it can be done for sure, just skip the partiitioning, it seems...
Any one with the XP yo guide a nood tru this?

Thanks!

Thor

Naw, don't skip the partitioning, just do not format /home.

When installation asks user to define partitions, choose "something else," I believe, for 'buntus.

Know where your original partitions are on hdd and details for each. If cannot remember, use gparted or other disk utility to identify where on /dev/ the swap, / and /home partitions were, as defined when using Arch.
will show this, as well

Edit partitions -- saying to use them and which file system for each, where to mount, whether or not to format, etc (e.g. yes, use /dev/sda1, ext4, mount at / , format); when defining the original /home, skip the format or lose everything there.

It's simple. Just remember, as someone's sig says, that "Linux assumes you know exactly what you are doing." After a while, you will!

EDIT: I see you have far more posts than me and have been using Linux longer, Thor 2.0! wtf?

1 members found this post helpful.

Hey there,

Thanks for the input...

Umm, yea', but that still does not allow me to get full of myself and assume I know enough, Linux, besides assuming you know what you're doing, does force one to some humility to the system...so, yup, I still post in the newbie corner, somehow, we're all noobs

Thor

I don't use Ubuntu or any of its derivatives, so I can't give you specific instructions, but generally you just set up a custom partition setup, either resize or just use your existing partitions as-is, tell it where to mount each of them, and tell it to format all but the one that will be mounted at /home. You'll also want to give your user the same UID as before so it has permission to access its own folder in your previous /home partition.

1 members found this post helpful.

I'd say go with hilyard advice and start the installer. once you get to the partitioner select the option for 'something else', there you have to tell the installer that use the partition you had previously set for your Arch root and tell the installer to also format that partition, ext4 is the default.

Then select the partition you have for home and tell the installer to mount it under /home but tell it no to format it.
Do the same with your swap partition.

Then proceed with your installation. Here is a guide in the ubuntu site but is similar for xubuntu, see step #4
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt...desktop-latest

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks, now I know what to read up...let's try that. On the up side, the data is not really that critical (I've got a backup of course) but it's a nice thing to try out...

Cool!