Arch Linux

Lockheed

Member

Registered: 2010-03-16

Posts: 1,521

Moving user profile from Ubuntu

I have a year-old worth of settings profile in Ubuntu. I would like to now use it in Arch.
The profile (and others) is on it's on partition and, apart from settings, there is one folders in it amounting at 300gb of data.

I know how to mount the partition as home, however, I am not sure if I just add this user as a new user in Arch, there are going to be some conflicts with applications I install. Will the settings of programs that are not yet installer on arch remain when I install them?

kazuo

Member

From: São Paulo/Brazil

Registered: 2008-03-18

Posts: 413

Website

Re: Moving user profile from Ubuntu

Profile? What profile? firefox profile? gimp profile? gajim profile?

You need to define better...

But pacman dont touch $HOME, so anything you put on it stays.

Last edited by kazuo (2010-06-15 10:09:24)

Lockheed

Member

Registered: 2010-03-16

Posts: 1,521

Re: Moving user profile from Ubuntu

/home/username

mythus

Member

From: MS Gulf Coast

Registered: 2008-05-15

Posts: 509

Website

Re: Moving user profile from Ubuntu

Your profiles in /home should be fine. When installing you have the option to choose your /home directory, and if it is already there, to own it as your home directory.

When you install firefox for example, firefox will use the profile from your /home if it already exists. If it doesn't, it will create a new one.

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Barrucadu

Member

From: York, England

Registered: 2008-03-30

Posts: 1,158

Website

Re: Moving user profile from Ubuntu

Your files in /home should be fine (though keeping a backup is always good). The only problems that could arise will be conflicts due to different software versions. Some config options may not work with the newer software in Arch.

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IgnorantGuru

Member

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 640

Website

Re: Moving user profile from Ubuntu

Personally, I would recommend starting with a fresh home folder.  As you configure each program you're using, you can try copying its config folder from your old home folder, or portions of it.  This way you will avoid importing conflicts and problems, as well as files not needed in Arch.  Ubuntu does do things a little differently.  Otherwise you may encounter problems in Arch that are really do to Ubuntu's files, but you may not realize the source of the problem.

Firefox's ~/.mozilla folder could be copied from your old home folder, but this is an example of importing potentially unwanted things.  Ubuntu modifies Firefox for commercial reasons related to tracking your searches, and also installs a custom extension.  Last I knew you couldn't remove this extension (without brutal editing), you can only disable it.  Thus I recommend configuring Firefox fresh.

andresp

Member

Registered: 2010-05-29

Posts: 62

Re: Moving user profile from Ubuntu

Permissions in debian are the useradd defaults; i.e., username:username instead of username:users.

Do chown -R or else you'll have stray open permissions to a possibly non-existant user group.

Well, and even if the groups weren't different, your old and new users may not have been UID 1000 both.

igndenok

Member

From: Sidoarjo, Indonesia

Registered: 2010-06-07

Posts: 160

Re: Moving user profile from Ubuntu

My /home in Arch now is the same /home I used in Fedora in back day.
All software profile I keep it in there when I still used Fedora can work perfectly with Arch now (firefox, ncmpcc, mpd, emacs, vim).
Of cource I need some changes in .bash files because some alias.

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Lockheed

Member

Registered: 2010-03-16

Posts: 1,521

Re: Moving user profile from Ubuntu

Ok, and a follow-up question.

Is it doable to use the same home folder for both Arch and Ubuntu at the same time? I am guessing NO because of the different user group structure on Arch.

fsckd

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-06-15

Posts: 4,173

Re: Moving user profile from Ubuntu

Actually a MAYBE because of the different versions of programs between the distros. It's not impossible but it can be much more work for you. Some people have claimed success. I don't believe them, lying fsckers, every last one of 'em. Anyways, you can set gid/uid for a user on one setup to be the same as on the other setup.

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