Having trouble with migration.

I have openSuSe 11. (3.5) installed on one Hard Drive and open SuSE 11.2 (KDE 4) installed on another I am trying to migrate all my user data over to the new install.

I am trying to the cp command to copy a backup my data to another mounted drive that both installations mount. I am using the info from this openSUSE wiki How to migrate to a new openSUSE version - openSUSE

When I use cp command in the example: linux-v5xu:/home # cp -b -vvv flamebait /backup/flamebait/
cp: omitting directory `flamebait’ happens

I also have lots of files and directories that have spaces in the names. Is this a problem with cp since I obviously can’t put quotes around those directories and files? /home/flamebait is 121.5 GB that needs to get moved with all file permissions maintained.

The copies I made with cp -av /home/flamebait /backup/flamebait had their permissions altered when I moved them into the new /home/flamebait

Consider booting something like
Downloads

Mount the partitions and copy away
http://forums.opensuse.org/new-user-how-faq-read-only/unreviewed-how-faq/427176-using-parted-magic-introduction.html#post2077128

Dling the ISO this looks very promising to me

As the cute Japanese schoolgirls say “kirikira”
Looks like it even might be graphical and right up my alley.

Thanks giving it a try.

Parted Magic is a life saver

Pmagic is great stuff I can’t say enough about it. My lack of skill with it has left that drive unbootable in KDE4.

I deleted the existing /home/user and copied my /home/user over from the backup drive. when It didn’t boot I deleted the ./kde4 folder.

Not sure of how to proceed from here. :sarcastic:

I managed to install mc with zypper though heheheh.

Did you install with the DVD
If so you can boot the repair utility and check the file system

or run fsck

File system is fine I overwrote something KDE4.3 in the /home/user needs I guess. I just fixed my updater problem in KDE 3.5 But still want to start migrating over “soonish” I think a complete new install is prolly the best bet.

Some of us “old people” need less of a moving target for our daily drivers lol!

OK. Good luck then

I just remembered something. I can do system restoration from yast2 from the command prompt. I can boot Linux on that drive just fine only KDE 4 will not come up. I’ll give that a try when I get time.

Nope. You have to have a archive to restore from Doh. Still a good tool that can be had from the CLI only.

You could try creating a new user account and see if kde4 works in that.

You must be aware of the UID for your account on both systems. UID is the number assigned to the account and is how the OS actually knows you. The alpha name is just for us meat bags. 11.0 and 11.2 both create a UID for the first user of 1000. But on the older system you may have played with the user accounts and maybe your UID is not 1000. So you have a permissions conflict. If they are not the same change the new one to the same number as the old one in Yast or the CL.

gogalthorp Thanks for that info. How do you change that so they match?

I also think I used the wrong command to move the files between the installs as well. I use the command cp -av when I should have used rsync -av. I am going to try to set up a second user account on that install and try to make my repairs from it. Seems openSUSE is too secure to do what I want. I noticed all the permissions on my files out on other mounted drives had been modified under opensSUSE 11.2 they are still world readable but not writable by the correct user. Where they were flamebait / users before they were now 500 / users. I don’t know who this 500 is :X

Just go to Yast and users and change the UID. The program will take care of changing all the file permissions in your home. If you have upgraded from previous version you could have all sorts of dross in the user setup

I am expecting the dross and I think I might be able to manage changing tie user ID.

QUITE a bit of dross actually. The desktop folder is full of outdated info and data this should be fun actually. I’ll chip at it just a tiny bit at a time and only import new data to it when I feel its OK to make the big switch.