Upgrade 13.2 --> 42.2 how to get files from previous home directory

Thank you. Yes, I am aware that the sdX# can change. I did verify that those partitions are the ones that I indicate so I am (relatively) certain that I have things right. I’m still stuck in some old ways, but will move to UUID notation in the near future…

Either works but device notion is just easier for us meat bags

In any case check the new home partition you created and see what is there. Looking at the default home on root or the old home on 13.2 does not help. The original problem seems to have been not being able to mount or use the new home

It does mount. We have proven that by moumting it, using it’s UUID, on his running 13.2 system using:

mount -t xfs /dev/disk/by-uuid/2be459f0-db30-4907-96af-ae71e2505b1b /mnt/testmark

And then the contents of /mnt/testmark was listed and the contents is that of what should be the home directory of user mark, to be used on the 42.2 system. I think that proves that:
a) the partition with that UUID is the correct partition (irrespective how it is counted as sdXn on whatever of the two systems);
b) that it there is an xfs file system on that partition without problems that can be mounted;
c) that it contains the data expected by the OP.

We are still trying to find out while the 42.2 system does not boot to completion when that fstab entry is active. That is why I asked for looking at the boot screen using Esc.

OP mounted it but did not list it

mark:/mnt # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/extra   # /dev/sda1 is the 42.2 system.

mark:/mnt # ls                                       # showing that the testmark directory exists
JudezData  cdrom  extra  sdb1  testmark

mark:/mnt # mount -t xfs /dev/disk/by-uuid/2be459f0-db30-4907-96af-ae71e2505b1b /mnt/testmark   <= MOUNT

mark:/mnt # ls -l /mnt/extra/home  <=List weong directory should be /mnt/testmark  not /mnt/extra/home should not even be a home directory it is a partition that is planned on mounted at /home 
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 22 mark users 4096 Jan 29 08:31 mark


mark:/mnt # ls -l /mnt/extra/home/mark   <= again list if this is a proper partition and not a directory on a partition should not have a home 
total 200
drwx------  2 mark users  4096 Jan 29 08:31 .QtWebEngineProcess
-rw-------  1 mark users    49 Jan 29 08:28 .Xauthority
-rw-------  1 mark users    51 Jan 29 08:46 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 mark users  1177 Jan 28 13:47 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x  8 mark users  4096 Jan 29 08:43 .cache
drwx------ 13 mark users  4096 Jan 29 08:46 .config
drwx------  3 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 .dbus
-rw-r--r--  1 mark users  1637 Jan 28 13:47 .emacs
-rw-------  1 mark users    16 Jan 28 13:48 .esd_auth
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 .fonts
-rw-r--r--  1 mark users   367 Jan 28 13:48 .gtkrc-2.0
-rw-r--r--  1 mark users   305 Jan 28 13:47 .i18n
-rw-r--r--  1 mark users   861 Jan 28 13:47 .inputrc
drwxr-xr-x  3 mark users  4096 Jan 28 14:03 .kde4
drwx------  2 mark users  4096 Jan 29 08:31 .kmail2
drwx------  3 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 .local
drwx------  4 mark users  4096 Jan 28 14:03 .mozilla
drwx------  3 mark users  4096 Jan 29 08:31 .pki
-rw-r--r--  1 mark users  1028 Jan 28 13:47 .profile
-rw-r--r--  1 mark users  1952 Jan 28 13:47 .xim.template
-rwxr-xr-x  1 mark users  1112 Jan 28 13:47 .xinitrc.template
-rw-------  1 mark users     0 Jan 29 08:28 .xsession-errors
-rw-------  1 mark users 72175 Jan 29 08:46 .xsession-errors-:0
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 Documents
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 Downloads
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 Music
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 Public
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 Templates
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:48 Videos
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:47 bin
drwxr-xr-x  2 mark users  4096 Jan 28 13:47 public_html
mark:/mnt # Th

That is a correct observation, but I told him that he should check that himself and that when he was satisfied, I did not need the listing. Apparently he was.

I admit that this is a rathr confusing thread because the OP and I had different ideas on what was where on which running system. IMHO this is sorted now. In any case the xfs partition with that UUID can be mounted, so that can not be a problem.

As you can read I went back to the original report about “boot resulted in blank screen” and try to get more info on what hppens during boot. No answer until now.

OK. Here is what I have found:
I stopped the partition that I wanted to mount at /home/mark from mounting in 42.2 and booted into 42.2. The system booted correctly into a plasma desktop.
I then, using YAST’s partitioner, I had the partition mounted at /home/mark and rebooted. When I tried to log in, all I saw was a “X” mouse pointer on the screen.
My conclusion here is: The “original (42.2) hidden files” in the home directory are needed for a successful X session. When I mount my 13.2 home directory over the existing home directory, the “original (42.2)hidden files” are not available, and the system throws errors. I think that the solution is to mount the 13.2 home directory in a different place and to manually move all of the data files (but not the “13.2 hidden files”.

I think that this will solve the problem, and it is not TOO painful. (if it doesn’t, I’ll post a follow-up)

Many thanks for all of the help. I really do appreciate it.

Mark

Can you please confirm that there is NO boot problem (which is what we are after all the time).

I interprete your last post as a login problem. And indeed, the KDE files in your home directory can be corrupted in a way that starting a KDE session is not possible.

But how could that happen, as you have copied all files from the mark’s home directory in the old (13.2) system?

You do not mount at /home/mark you mount it at /home. The files in your new home partition should only be the contents of the 13.2 home with NO reference to home just the mark directory… I think you are confusing how mounts work. /home comes from the mount point not the partition. Whats in the partition should only be the contents of home

Yes.The system booted properly. I don’t understand why that has happened, as it did not boot properly at first. Very strange.

More diagnoses…when I mounted the 13.2 data onto the 42.2 system, I mounted the 13.2 data at /home/mark which hid the 42.2 KDE files in the 42.2 /home/mark directory. This led to the failure to be able to log in.

As I am thinking about what I want to accomplish, it seems that I have to leave the 42.2 /home/mark directory unchanged and mount my old files to something like /home/mark/data. It isn’t exactly what I want, but I think it is the best solution for me. It will just be more work.

My best wishes,
Mark