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Re: Utilising a saved /home partition



On Tuesday 20 May 2003 14:32, Mark Annandale wrote:
> I have recently installed debian by doing a Knoppix HD install. My previous
> distro folders and files are on /hdb6 and I would like to use the mail
> folders on there. I have enabled the partition in fstab and made it
> writeable - however - how do I now point myself as a user at this partition

So, you want to use a user's home directory from another install? That's 
relatively easy.

First problem is likely that the file ownership on the new partition doesn't 
match the one of your running installation. To fix this, it's easiest to 
change ownership. Do this with 'chown' (have a look at the manpage, 
especially on how to run it recursively).

Then, to change your home directory, the easiest way is to edit /etc/passwd. 
The format is documented in the manpage, but understandable without it. 
Search your username in that file. There should be a line like

username:1000:1000:some,information,about,the,user:/home/username:/bin/bash

Change the /home/username to /mountpoint/of/new/partition and you should be 
set. Just log in to check it.

Needless to say that this operation isn't recommended for the root user ;-)

-- 
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