Messed up now recovering

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#1

Dear all,
I have windows 7 with latest opensuse installed. I have also one shared ntfs partition which is my /home in linux.

That shared ntfs partition has created so many problems which I want to solve.

What I am thinking to do is
To mount that old /home partition somewhere else as read only and make a new /home partition for my linux.

I would like to ask you how I can copy from my old /home directory all my settings I had in kde and other apps so to not loose my configurations. Usually these files are hidden (.prefix) and thus I was thinking that I just need to copy the files with the .prefix. IS that right and how I can do this from bash?

I would like to thank you in advance for your help

B.R

Alex

#2

On 10/19/2011 09:36 AM, alaios wrote:
>Usually these files are hidden (.prefix) and thus I was
> thinking that I just need to copy the files with the .prefix. IS that
> right and how I can do this from bash?

i assume you intend to “make a new /home partition for my linux” using a
Linux file system, like ext3 or ext4…right?

if you do that, then: yes you would need to copy all of the files and
directories beginning with a ‘.’

but, (it is no wonder you had problems, as) it is not possible to have
any linux partition on ntfs because that file system has (by design) no
means to save/keep file information such as read/write and executable
permissions…therefore, even if you figure out how to copy from old
ntfs to new ext_ using bash you may (hmmm, maybe will) still end up with
unusable config files…

if i were to try it i would use Midnight Commander in bash…otherwise
i’d just use either the cp command or rsync…

or, a superuser/root powered Dolphin or Nautilus could see both old and
new and you could dual pane and then drag and drop…

but, having never tried it, i do not know how to then generate all the
file information now missing on the ntfs side…

–
DD
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat
openSUSE®, the “German Automobiles” of operating systems

#3

I have also one shared ntfs partition which is my /home in linux.

This is a practice I would not recommend. Assuming I understand you correctly?
Is what you mean, that your /home is a ntfs partition ?

Assuming you have the space you should easily be able to backup /home and yes you may want .kde .mozilla etc…

I would use a Live CD to do what you want. I find Linux Mint CD’s work well for this.

#4

Yes I plan to make a “right” ext4 home partition.

Why I will need a live cd for doing that?

My Guess is to use Yast and create the new home partition and make the old one somewhere else mountable as read only.

Then I will just need to copy the hidden files which I do not know how I can do that with bash.

#5

Create the partition with Yast yes.

Using a live CD or backing everything up to a folder in windows is the easiest way to manage your files

#6

On 10/19/2011 12:16 PM, alaios wrote:
>
> Yes I plan to make a “right” ext4 home partition.
>
> Why I will need a live cd for doing that?

do you already have an unused partition which is or can be formatted
with ext3/4?

if not, you will need shrink existing partitions and it is not possible
to do that from a system installed in a partition to be manipulated

or, maybe you have space on a different drive?

> My Guess is to use Yast and create the new home partition

creating a new partition entirely outside of the existing boundary of
the root system, its swap space and your home is possible while using
YaST, if everything in the space is neither currently in use nor
needed to be retained…

> and make the old one somewhere else mountable as read only.

where is “somewhere else”? a different drive? currently unused space?

and how, while using the installed system do you have two homes at the
same time? (something rather easily done when booted from a live CD)

> Then I will just need to copy the hidden files which I do not know how
> I can do that with bash.

hidden files are copied, moved, created or destroyed just like
not-hidden files…

a ‘normal file’ becomes “hidden” by beginning its name with a .

add a . and it is hidden, delete the . and it is not…

in either case it remains a file and is moved, copied, deleted or
created the same way, always…

copy is done at the command line using the command cp if you had
successfully created a new home mounted at (say) /home, and had moved
the old home to “somewhere” named /oldhome then the command would (i
think) be something like:


cp -r /oldhome /home

alternatively, one could use rsync, like:


rsync -avz /oldhome /home

there are other ways, but as said previously i wouldn’t do it that way,
instead i would use Midnight Commander running in bash (because it is so
easy)

as always i highly recommend a BACKUP all data to a safe, off machine
location prior to beginning any partitioning operation…recovery from
typing mistakes can be painful, expensive and/or impossible.

and, whatever you do–don’t do anything based on what i have written
until after you have read the caveat in my sig.

–
DD
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat
openSUSE®, the “German Automobiles” of operating systems

#7

On 2011-10-19 12:16, alaios wrote:
>
> Yes I plan to make a “right” ext4 home partition.
>
> Why I will need a live cd for doing that?

Because /home would normally be in use.

You can do it from your system if you log in text mode as root, and close
the graphic system by issuing “init 3”. Then use “mc” as text mode file
browser to do the operations.

> My Guess is to use Yast and create the new home partition and make the
> old one somewhere else mountable as read only.

It can be R/W as long as you use it only for data, files you create; like
things with openoffice, fotos, whatever. The directory Documents, for
example, can be there.

> Then I will just need to copy the hidden files which I do not know how
> I can do that with bash.

mc. Or rsync.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

#8

The command


cp -r /oldhome /home

will copy the folder /oldhome in the new one. What you need is to copy the contents of /oldhome to /home:


cp -r -v -p /oldhome/* /home

this way the content of /oldhome, i.e. the users’s homedirs, will be copied to /home, incl. the permissions.

#9

On 10/19/2011 04:56 PM, Knurpht wrote:
> cp -r -v -p /oldhome/* /home

yes! thank you.

–
DD
openSUSE®, the “German Automobiles” of operating systems

#10

On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:36:02 GMT, alaios
<alaios@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

>
>Dear all,
>I have windows 7 with latest opensuse installed. I have also one shared
>ntfs partition which is my /home in linux.
>
>That shared ntfs partition has created so many problems which I want to
>solve.
>
>What I am thinking to do is
>To mount that old /home partition somewhere else as read only and make
>a new /home partition for my linux.
>
>I would like to ask you how I can copy from my old /home directory all
>my settings I had in kde and other apps so to not loose my
>configurations. Usually these files are hidden (.prefix) and thus I was
>thinking that I just need to copy the files with the .prefix. IS that
>right and how I can do this from bash?
>
>I would like to thank you in advance for your help
>
>B.R
>
>Alex

Personally i like using parted magic for this kind of thing. It will
resize and create partitions for you and then “clone” the data from one
partition to another for you. Real handy for the purpose.

?-)

#11

Some Live cd with nice partition program with gui? Can I have Yast in a live cd ? :slight_smile:

#12

On 11/05/2011 03:24 AM, alaios wrote:
>
> Some Live cd with nice partition program with gui?

both parted magic (suggested by Joseph) and openSUSE Live CDa have a
“nice partition program with gui”

> Can I have Yast in a live cd ? :slight_smile:

of course, YaST is only available in one of the above alternatives…

–
DD
openSUSE®, the “German Automobiles” of operating systems

#13

and what If I want to copy only the hidden files to the new home partition (where I assume that all my application settings, like kde settings are stored)?

Alex

#14

[blahblah]/.* [blahblah]

–
DD
openSUSE®, the “German Automobiles” of operating systems

#15

Vielen Dank

#16

Could you please help me fix my rpm sources (as probably they also cause trouble?)

| Alias | Name | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | URI

–±------------------------------------±------------------------------------±--------±--------±---------±-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | NVIDIA Repository | NVIDIA Repository 11.4 | Yes | Yes | 99 | ftp://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/11.4
2 | Packman_11.3 | Packman 11.4 | Yes | Yes | 99 | http://packman.jacobs-university.de/suse/11.4/
3 | devel:languages:R:patched | devel:languages:R:patched | Yes | Yes | 99 | Index of /repositories/devel:/languages:/R:/patched/openSUSE_11.3
4 | http-download.opensuse.org-a0f5c24d | http-download.opensuse.org-a0f5c24d | No | Yes | 99 | Index of /distribution/11.3/repo/oss/suse
5 | repo-11.4-non-oss | openSUSE-11.4 Non-OSS | Yes | No | 99 | Index of /distribution/11.4/repo/non-oss
6 | repo-11.4-oss | openSUSE-11.4 OSS | Yes | No | 99 | Index of /distribution/11.4/repo/oss
7 | repo-11.4-update | openSUSE-11.4 Updates | Yes | Yes | 99 | Index of /update/11.4
8 | repo-update | openSUSE-11.3-Update | No | No | 99 | Index of /update/11.3

I would like to have my system “ready” to upgrade to the next linux version when it will be released (10 days from now?)
Alex

#17

Can you tell us if you are using 11.3 or 11.4
as you have a mix of repos?!

#18

On 2011-11-05 16:06, alaios wrote:
>
> Could you please help me fix my rpm sources (as probably they also cause
> trouble?)

Use code tags to paste computer output. Advanced editor, #.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

#19

(I have to skip the source part for now)

Today I have completed the following

a. I did a backup on my initial /home partition (that was ntfs )
b. I resized the ntfs partition using live cd (succesfuly)
c. I made a new /home partition as ext4
d. Mounted the old home as /home/oldhome as readable ony (ntfs filesystem)
e. created the folder directory /home/myusername
f. copied as was described above cp -r -v -p /home/oldhome/.* /home/myusername
g. I granted to the new files permissions for the old user. chown -R myusername . *

After that I assume that I wil lbe able to launch my gui and all programs like kde will work as I have copied their “old” hidden files.
Unfortunately after I see the X prompt and I log in I receive the following message

kstartupconfig4 not found returned error message 4 (something like that).

From console I logged is as myusername user and I checked that this file can be found as the /usr/bin/kstartupconfig4 is in my path.

What do you think I have missed in the chain described above?

B.R
Alex

#20

Please post output, between code tags, of


cat /etc/fstab

My guess is that your mountpoints still are no good. But, to be honest, if I see the repolist, with a mix of repos, I don’t have much confidence in the integrity of your current install (don’t know what you have done so far) and can only come to one conclusion: perform a clean install of 11.4 or wait for 12.1 and perform a clean install then. During install pick the right /home partition, the installer will ask you if it needs to set the permissions right, accept that.