shifting of home directory possible ?

rvc · 2012-09-10 17:55:17

i went through a lot of reading before i ventured into installation of arch. i installed from the august release and have successfully upgraded to current september 7 release.

mistakes i commited....
i wanted to install home on a seperate partition and i had mounted so in usb as instructed. but some how my home directory is residing in the same root partition and the /dev/sda7 which i allocated for /home is empty. further more, i am unable to access that partition from my home as it say i dont have permissions....

how to make the partition accessible. and is it possible to shift the home directory from current / partition to /home ? [ in my case it is /dev/sda5 for / and /dev/sda7 for home.

finally, i wish to access the widnows partition in read/write mode. i am able to just open files as read only and i cant save any file there. the other ntfs partion which is empty is also not accesible from arch. how to make that accesible ? both in read/write modes.

bws · 2012-09-10 18:15:56

Have a look at your /etc/fstab file and follow the example listed here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab. If I'm undstanding you correctly, you have a seperate partition set up and I'm assuming formatted for /home already, but it's just not configured/mounting correctly. That link should hlelp.

As far as the windows partition, you could try chaning permissions while logged in as root to allow your everyday username read/write capabilities, but I don't run a dual boot set up and don't know how this would impact the windows side of things. I've tried dual botting in the past numerous times and they've all ended in lots of headaches.

Last edited by bws (2012-09-10 18:16:21)

Lone_Wolf · 2012-09-10 23:29:02

The kernel only has read-only support for NTFS, for read/write support you need to install ntfs-3g .

You'll likely want to add both ntfs partitions in fstab.

cfr · 2012-09-11 00:22:16

If you *just* edit fstab, your current home directory will be masked by the home partition when you reboot.

One easy way to avoid this would be:
1) edit fstab appropriately
2) boot the live install media
3) mount / and /home but mount home somewhere different. For example:

mkdir /mnt/root
mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/root
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sdaY /mnt/home

4) move /mnt/root/home/<username> to /mnt/home/<username>
5) reboot

That way, the ownership and permissions on your home directory will just be moved along with the directory itself and you shouldn't find anything mysteriously disappearing.

rvc · 2012-09-11 03:23:24

cfr wrote:

If you *just* edit fstab, your current home directory will be masked by the home partition when you reboot.
One easy way to avoid this would be:
1) edit fstab appropriately
2) boot the live install media
3) mount / and /home but mount home somewhere different. For example:
mkdir /mnt/root
mount /dev/sdaX /mnt/root
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sdaY /mnt/home
4) move /mnt/root/home/<username> to /mnt/home/<username>
5) reboot
That way, the ownership and permissions on your home directory will just be moved along with the directory itself and you shouldn't find anything mysteriously disappearing.

followed the rules and edited the fstab successfully.... i rebooted and i am able to even access the ntfs partition, thanks to ntfs-3g.

observations:
i find /home in root file system as well as the newly shifted partition for /home (sda7)
i could also boot easily without any problem
i find that the user exists in both places and the file manager dolphin shows the default first left pane content as Home (which i presume is the root file system /home/USER) i click on the partition 24 GB filesystem (/dev/sda7) and that also shows my user folder.

to double check on whats happening, i created a dummy-test file using nano and saved it to my home directory. then i opened the Home as well as 24 gb filesystem home. both folders contained the test file !

it sort of created mirror? is it ok if i delete the /home foler from the root file system ?
i wanted a seperate home partition but dont think i need a mirror !

CORRECTIONS:
i noticed its not a mirror, double checked with right clicking and checking out with properties and amount of space available / used. it will be less confusing if these 2 lists (24 gb and 29 gb is not displayed in the bottom part of the left pane in dolphin !

Last edited by rvc (2012-09-11 03:39:01)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-09-10 17:55:17

shifting of home directory possible ?

#2 2012-09-10 18:15:56

Re: shifting of home directory possible ?

#3 2012-09-10 23:29:02

Re: shifting of home directory possible ?

#4 2012-09-11 00:22:16

Re: shifting of home directory possible ?

#5 2012-09-11 03:23:24

Re: shifting of home directory possible ?

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