Re: [SLUG] RE: Ron's Mandrake install probs.
quote who=Malcolm V Note that trying to re-use your home directories can break things, particular where inappropriate config settings are stored in files like .bashrc To be fair on a distribution If reusing home directories breaks things, and the user hasn't made significant modifications to things like .profile, .bashrc, etc., then it is the distribution's fault, and 100% a bug. There should be nothing stopping you from logging into the same home directory (mounted via NFS) from Solaris, Debian, Red Hat, etc., etc., etc. :-) - Jeff -- Get Informed: SCO vs. IBMhttp://sco.iwethey.org/ Be shunned, be hated, be ridiculed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged. The time of trial is always. - John J. Chapman -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] RE: Ron's Mandrake install probs.
On Sat, 2003-07-19 at 15:44, Jeff Waugh wrote: If reusing home directories breaks things, and the user hasn't made significant modifications to things like .profile, .bashrc, etc., then it is the distribution's fault, and 100% a bug. If ... If all distributions were identical, you'd never be installing more then one of them. If everyone wanted the exact same setup, they wouldn't be using Linux. If you installed Gentoo, you'd never have to worry about doing a x.0 to x.1 upgrade. If you want to be sure, Nuke 'em from orbit. Cheers, Malcolm V. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] RE: Ron's Mandrake install probs.
quote who=Malcolm V On Sat, 2003-07-19 at 15:44, Jeff Waugh wrote: If reusing home directories breaks things, and the user hasn't made significant modifications to things like .profile, .bashrc, etc., then it is the distribution's fault, and 100% a bug. If ... If all distributions were identical, you'd never be installing more then one of them. If everyone wanted the exact same setup, they wouldn't be using Linux. If you installed Gentoo, you'd never have to worry about doing a x.0 to x.1 upgrade. That's not the point. Assuming the same user database (LDAP, yp, whatever), *nothing* should stop you from logging in to the same home directory from multiple machines. Anything that does is a bug (and yes, there are a few still around in GNOME, which we are fixing). It's nothing to do with distros or operating systems or architectures being different. - Jeff -- Get Informed: SCO vs. IBMhttp://sco.iwethey.org/ A narcissist - every inch the preening, overconfident, studiously effete, ever-so-slightly detached rock star. - Anon. description of Tony Blair -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] RE: Ron's Mandrake install probs.
On Sat, 2003-07-19 at 17:57, Jeff Waugh wrote: That's not the point. Assuming the same user database (LDAP, yp, whatever), *nothing* should stop you from logging in to the same home directory from multiple machines. Anything that does is a bug (and yes, there are a few still around in GNOME, which we are fixing). It's nothing to do with distros or operating systems or architectures being different. Well, of course it is a bug, but that wasn't my point. My point was that those bugs are best avoided by not re-using home directories across distribution installs. This is particularly important when you are trialling a new distro and want to see it in all _its_ glory, without the dags of another distro possibly stinking it up. It also ensures a cleaning of the crufty 'dot' files accumulating in your home directory, but that is a different matter. Everyone is quite happy to espouse the advantages of /home on a different partition, IF we didn't have to worry about bugs, I wouldn't have posted anything... Cheers, Malcolm V. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] RE: Ron's Mandrake install probs.
I agree with Jeff - Shouldn't you be able to log into a /home partition from another machine/distro and read your files? It seems there needs to be a standardisation of uids/gids across distros. The aim is to be mainstream isn't it? Because if it isn't then Gawd help us 5-10-20 years downstream when every algorithm is patented and no file can be read six months after it has been created on software that MUST be updated. Reminds me of old days on the left in the 70s, sniping between factions leads to marginalisation. I'm sure you all know the Monty Python/Life of Brian scene with the revolutionaries - so who are we against? On 19 Jul 2003, Malcolm V wrote: On Sat, 2003-07-19 at 17:57, Jeff Waugh wrote: That's not the point. Assuming the same user database (LDAP, yp, whatever), *nothing* should stop you from logging in to the same home directory from multiple machines. Anything that does is a bug (and yes, there are a few still around in GNOME, which we are fixing). It's nothing to do with distros or operating systems or architectures being different. Well, of course it is a bug, but that wasn't my point. My point was that those bugs are best avoided by not re-using home directories across distribution installs. This is particularly important when you are trialling a new distro and want to see it in all _its_ glory, without the dags of another distro possibly stinking it up. It also ensures a cleaning of the crufty 'dot' files accumulating in your home directory, but that is a different matter. Everyone is quite happy to espouse the advantages of /home on a different partition, IF we didn't have to worry about bugs, I wouldn't have posted anything... Cheers, Malcolm V. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
[SLUG] RE: Ron's Mandrake install probs.
Hi all, I just reads Ron's Mandrake 9.1 upgrade woes and thought I might throw this into the ring. I have made a habit of creating a partition called Home During my linux installs. This way my data is always intact even if an install goes horribly wrong, or if I have reinstall the OS (Like reverting back to RH 8.0, because of the ATi/Xinerama dramas in 9.0) Not being a linux guru, it's nice to know that if I truck up the OS, I can reinstall the OS and my 'home' directories and it's contents are unaffected. Just a thought Regards Mick -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] RE: Ron's Mandrake install probs.
Its a great idea and should be your standard for any installation. But be aware that different distros dont necessarily recognise home directories created by others. You will possibly need to do some chown -R here and there. I discovered this because I played around with various Mandrake and Redhat releases for a while untilI I settled withRedhat 8. -- Laurie Savage Physics/Maths/IT Teacher Pascoe Vale Girls' College Pascoe Vale, Victoria, AUSTRALIA On 2003-07-17 23:33:16 + mick [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, I just reads Ron's Mandrake 9.1 upgrade woes and thought I might throw this into the ring. I have made a habit of creating a partition called Home During my linux installs. This way my data is always intact even if an install goes horribly wrong, or if I have reinstall the OS (Like reverting back to RH 8.0, because of the ATi/Xinerama dramas in 9.0) Not being a linux guru, it's nice to know that if I truck up the OS, I can reinstall the OS and my 'home' directories and it's contents are unaffected. Just a thought Regards Mick -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] RE: Ron's Mandrake install probs.
I shouldn't reply to my own note, I know. But I should have mentioned that even if you keep user names the same, different distros presumably allocate different UIDs to the users and so the ownership of home directories becomes confused. Maybe you could circumvent this by creating the users in the same sequence during each successive installation, but this requires good record keeping! -- Laurie Savage Physics/Maths/IT Teacher Pascoe Vale Girls' College Pascoe Vale, Victoria, AUSTRALIA releases for a while untilI I settled withRedhat 8. -- Laurie Savage Physics/Maths/IT Teacher Pascoe Vale Girls' College Pascoe Vale, Victoria, AUSTRALIA On 2003-07-17 23:33:16 + mick [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, I just reads Ron's Mandrake 9.1 upgrade woes and thought I might throw this into the ring. I have made a habit of creating a partition called Home During my linux installs. This way my data is always intact even if an install goes horribly wrong, or if I have reinstall the OS (Like reverting back to RH 8.0, because of the ATi/Xinerama dramas in 9.0) Not being a linux guru, it's nice to know that if I truck up the OS, I can reinstall the OS and my 'home' directories and it's contents are unaffected. Just a thought Regards Mick -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] RE: Ron's Mandrake install probs.
On Thu, 2003-07-17 at 20:36, Laurie Savage wrote: But I should have mentioned that even if you keep user names the same, different distros presumably allocate different UIDs to the users and so the ownership of home directories becomes confused. Redhat always made me uid=500, and Debian makes me uid=1000. During installs, there's always been a place where I can specify mount points, including for already initialized partitions, and I specify my existing /home partition then. I also create the named user account, same name as before, and don't concern myself about the uid. After rebooting, but before signing in as my user, I go in as root and do cd /home; chown -R user.user user. I've gone both ways, and haven't lost anything I cared enough about to recall now. I haven't found anything this doesn't work for, but I'm running a personal system, so my experiments are limited. If I had a lot of users, I'd write a script that wrote out the account names and run it while things were working, so I'd have it against the day. Then I'd run another script that did the above off the list to restore them all. If the user data is kept somewhere as uid numbers, this would be more complicated, as those might change. I don't know of such, but there might be a volid reason I don't know of to do that, or just an unfortunate design decision. Cheers, Bret -- bwaldow at alum.mit.edu -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
