I have somewhere read, when you will upgrade your opnesuse ( now up to 11.4 ), it is always better with format /home for stability, running newer versions of programs. OK, I have backup of my data, but I think better than restore data it is more comfortable to have another partition only for documents, photographs, music, videos etc. … no need format by new instalation. How is the better choice of mountig such partition?
The situation is complicated with dualboot with winXP.
/dev/sda1 primary partition win C
/dev/sda2 /
/dev/sda3 /home
/dev/sda4 … is extended partition, where I have /swap windows D and windows E
I don’t need any more winE, so it can be another linux partition for my data
Is it problem for working with my data,when they are located on extended partition? How should I mount it? /srv …/tmp …/local …/usr…
Or does it exist another way for my data? I mean no partition, only any directory. But where to establish this directory?
Thank you very much. I know ( google ), there is many ways…but I am confused:(
None of those ! These names are used by the system. But you can use the name /data or any name you like except the ones you mentionned above.
A separate partition would be perfect since you could reinstall without reformating it. That’s already the purpose of a separate /home. But a separate /data partition is even better.
You can give the mount point you like (ex. /doc), but none of the one suggested (/srv, etc.). I also prefer formatting my /home before every upgrade to have the cleanest installation.
On 03/09/2011 03:36 PM, please try again wrote:
>
> A separate partition would be perfect since you could reinstall without
> reformating it. That’s already the purpose of a separate /home. But a
> separate /data partition is even better.
The problem you MAY have with this is that Documents and Downloads and
Desktop and everything else are all their own directories. You could
symlink them to /data and then have that just be yours, or /data/youruser
so you could do this in a multi-user fashion, but honestly I don’t see the
big problem with just keeping /home for this purpose. Formatting it
definitely cleans things out but it also kind of defeats the purpose of
having /home mounted separately unless you do so to add things like
+noexec as a mount option that would otherwise not work for the entire
root filesystem. If you have issues related to upgrades you could easily
keep all your regular data but then, before your first login, delete all
of the dot-starting directories in your home directory since that is
(usually) where all of your applications store their preference/setting
data. This would let you basically be out of the box without a lot of
tweaks, links, mounts, etc. and would let you clean things out on a
reinstall (or whenever really).
Good luck.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.15 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
**As Please_try_again wrote usually thats why /home is on a separate partition and is not formatted, so that you won’t lose your openSUSE, Firefox, Thunderbird, Evolution configuration files and data when you upgrade.
**
Is it problem for working with my data,when they are located on extended partition? How should I mount it? /srv …/tmp …/local …/usr…
No, that’s what extended partitions are for. The /local, /srv, /var, /tmp are usually located on your / (root) partition with /root and /etc and will be formatted when you install a new release.
Or does it exist another way for my data? I mean no partition, only any directory. But where to establish this directory?
Thank you very much. I know ( google ), there is many ways…but I am confused:(
If you are sure you don’t need Win E anymore you could delete that partition and use it’s space to create your /data partition.
As sda4 seems to be adjacent to your existing /home, sda3, you can also merge them for a larger /home. This assumes that the partitions are adjacent, which is usually but not always the case. A fdisk -l should show you whether this is the case. You would do the merge using something like a gparted live CD.
Yes, I absolutely understand why I should have /home on a separate partition. That is why I always have it and I have never formated my /home ( from opensuse 11.0 )
So, you recommend me … it is not necessary to format /home by new installation! Format /home by upgrade is the mistake of many people, which don’t know ( or don’t understand ) the principles of functions of operating system GNU/Linux. The system will work absolutely correctly with “old” /home for many years… for many upgrades. ??
Nope. It won’t. /home contains both documents (that you don’t want to delete) and user settings for all programs including the desktop (kde, Gnome, etc) that may change between versions and not always get updated correctly. However it is always possible to just delete/rename a specific program directory (traditionnally a hidden directory which names starts with a dot) and restart the program to get the default settings. This also works for KDE and Gnome.
Yes, for example Thunderbird will not work correctly after upgrade… I’ll delete it’s directory .thuhderbird, after that new configuration… the same for all KDE /home/username/.kde or for any KDE’s aplication /home/username/.kde/share/apps/.XY
I repair this way my non correct working application.
So this is the only one problem for nonformat /home… new version application problem? Or is there any other reason for format home partition?
Because this problem can be solved…
it’s very comfortable not format /home … everything works after my upgrade to 11.4
On 2011-03-14 22:36, please try again wrote:
>
> vaon;2304544 Wrote:
>> The system will work absolutely correctly with “old” /home for many
>> years… for many upgrades. ??
>
> Nope. It won’t.
Yes, it does
I have never formatted home, and as I do upgrades, it comes from 7.3 or
earlier (on the other computer). I only format a data partition if it
crashes beyond repair. Only on occasion did I have to delete config
directories.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)
Yes and no. The user of /data should make sure they have backups of things like Evolution task, address book, Thunderbird addressbook, email folders, Banshee playlists, etc. otherwise those are gone when formatting /home. I prefer to clean up post upgrade, by making a tar backup and removing the suspect file or directory ~/.ooo tree. If the application works without the suspect file or directory then I can delete the backup.
BTW, I make weekly backups of my *.cf, .cnf, .conf hosts, etc. in /etc and ~/. directories as well as ~/ configurations files, but after this last update I’m going to replicate the lastest stored version onto another drive.
