Trying to get some feedback on whether running a fresh install of TW into the / partition that is now a Gecko rolling install, but keep the Gecko /home directory for the new TW install?
I have seen comments over the years about how doing something like that is a “bad idea” but I’m trying to see if the similarities of TW and Gecko could make that “OK”???
It’s more about keeping the user name going rather than any data, as in the laptop that Gecko install is primarily to have a grub handler that is multi-boot friendly in a triple boot set up . . . .
Are the “config” files so radically different between TW and Gecko rolling that it would be a disaster to try to re-use the /home file, or, similar enough that it could be done???
Ultimately it’s about the versions of software installed and the user preferences/configuration files that are stored in the home directory.
Some of those config files might be incompatible or cause unexpected behaviors.
It would generally be advisable to back up the user data, do a fresh install, and then restore just the data (and not the app configurations).
That said, you can certainly try. If apps give you trouble, you’ll probably want to look for their user configuration files, remove them, and then try rerunning the app if something doesn’t work.
OK, thanks for that information . . . might give it a go, it’s more about using time to play around rather than any critical user data. In that sense there is nothing that would need to be backed up . . . other than knowing the partition the /home directory is in, and the user name . . . .
Just to have an idea about it, if things would go sideways, where would I look for user configuration files? Those files seem to be the issue that the comments from way back were referring to . . . the only app that might be used in the system would be the Firefox browser . . . . Other than the base time and location services . . . .
I’d probably start by looking at the docs for the program. Failing that, while it’s running, you can try using lsof to see what files the program has open (if it keeps the files open).
Something else to consider is that a fresh install may not use the same UID ↔ username mapping, so it’s possible that the user’s home directory may not be accessible to the user at all (or they may have only read permissions). The username isn’t the important thing in determining the user’s access - their UID and GID are. Since Gecko is derived from openSUSE, it’s likely that UIDs/GIDs are assigned the way they are in openSUSE, but it’s possible that they aren’t.
If there’s nothing critical in the directory, it’s probably best just to not try to preserve anything.
Prolly good advice . . . . One thing I have learned over the years is that, other than formatting the entire partition that contains the /home directory, if there is a shared partition you can’t delete the /home directory of one of them. So, that means that the data can be accessed up until the partition is formatted.
In the case of the Gaz15 the Gecko /home directory is sharing that partition with a Debian Sid /home . . . plenty of space in there, etc.
So, part of me is “curious” to see what happens if I try to re-use the Gecko /home and part of me “doesn’t have time” to find out. : - ))
It could be reinstalled quickly enough if doing that blows up the GUI . . . grub would still be intact or the main squeeze system could be found in the “BIOS” boot . . . .
I’ll try to post back with the latest “news of fresh disaster” once I have made a decision on it . . . .
OK, I think I got it done, “successfully” . . . took a couple of runs to get it set up to use the prior /home directory in the installer . . . .
So far so good, the joy is that I don’t have to log back in to FF . . . it just continues on as it was . . . .
I didn’t have “videos” in social media, so I added Packman repo, but that didn’t seem to get it fully operational . . . do I also have to add “essentials for Packman” to get videos to play or there are some other packages that need to be installed? It’s been a few months since I had to do this for Leap 16??