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Old 11-16-2008, 06:34 PM   #1
rhomp2002
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Question Same /home for multiple distros


I am planning on splitting off the /home directory from one of my distros to its own partition on a separate drive. Is it possible to use a /home directory for more than one distro, e.g., if I have Sabayon and Kubuntu both installed can I use a common home directory for the two of them so they can share entries and files, photos, etc. It would be nice but not sure if it is doable.
 
Old 11-16-2008, 06:42 PM   #2
pixellany
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It is possible, but has some pitfalls. All of your individual settings are stored in /home/username. If you change something when running one distro, it may affect how the others behave.

I prefer to put shared data in a common partition and then link it in to the various /home/username directories. I keep the Thunderbird and Firefox files in shared data and create links so that they are found where the programs expect to see them.
 
Old 11-16-2008, 06:49 PM   #3
camorri
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I would not recommend it. Various programs store user configuration in the /home/youruser. You would have two ( or more ) distros modifying config files. Not sure what desktop is on Saybayon, Kubuntu uses KDE.

If the levels of the same programs are different, you could have unpredictable results.

There is no problem moving your pictures, data files, music etc to a shared partition. You can get away with a small /home directory for each distro.
 
Old 11-16-2008, 07:05 PM   #4
billymayday
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If you are the only user yo want to do this for, why don't you set yourself a partition that you can mount as /home/user/data or similar?

Otherwise you could get fancy with autofs on the same machine to achieve a similar result.
 
Old 11-16-2008, 07:30 PM   #5
Quakeboy02
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If the goal is just to have a common point to put files, pics, movies, etc, you'd probably be happier with a "/data" (or your own name) partition that's outside of the "/home" structure altogether. This keeps the installed program conflict problem away from it, and leaves only the data in a common place for all your distros.
 
  


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