Re: Strategic approach to recreating an existing user
On 20091014_154032, Kevin Ross wrote:
> > From: AG [mailto:computing.account@googlemail.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 3:18 PM
> >
> > Due to something that got seriously borked on my wife's Lenny system, I
> > have decided that the best way to tackle this is to create a new
> > account
> > for her and transfer existing files over (excluding the KDE config
> > files
> > which is where the borkness seems to be).
> >
> > The reasons for doing this are because somehow one or more of the KDE
> > configuration files has resulted in a number of problems, such as
> > losing
> > desktop icons and removable media (e.g. an USB stick) triggering OOo
> > rather than opening the actual medium, and small but really irritating
> > things like that, which despite my best attempts to fix remain unfixed.
> >
> > When I create a new account to test these issues in, I cannot replicate
> > the problems, so am keen to transfer non-configuration files over (with
> > the exception of the applications she uses).
> > The approach that I was thinking of would be to burn the files and
> > directories (including her KMail and Evolution directories as well as
> > the IceWeasel bookmarks) onto a CD, delete her existing /home/<user
> > directory> and then add her as a new user again, and then transfer what
> > is on the CD back into the newly created account.
> >
> > Can anyone see any potential gotchas to this approach, or recommend a
> > more sophisticated way of accomplishing the same objective?
> >
> > TIA
> >
> > AG
>
> >From another account, just rename her home directory to something else, then
> create an empty home directory. Then when she logs back in, all the
> configurations will be back at their defaults. Then just copy anything
> needed from the renamed directory back into her home directory.
AG,
Kevin's is a good suggestion, but, I think, needs some tweeking. There are
a number of hidden (dot) files in a home directory that are put there
when the user account is created. These were already there when KDE started
putting stuff in your wife's home directory. KDE might need some of
those files to initialize itself properly. I don't know whether KDE does
look at the environment into which it inserts itself, but its likely
enough that I would fold the possibility into my thinking.
A quick way to find out what files are put there initially in a new
account is simply to make a new account for a ficticious user and see
what gets put there. Then put identical files into the new home directory
for your wife. Adjust the owner:group of the copies to be correct
for your wife. Don't just copy the files form your wife's old home.
KDE might have deposited some little gems in the old ones. Use new
copies from the ficticious user, but with your wife as owner.
Perhaps you should also mark all the files in her old home dir
read-only, so they don't accidentally get corrupted further during
the period of reconstructing her environment. Once she is happy
with the new situation, you can write-enable them and delete them.
But until she is really out of the woods on this, you should keep
them around, and in a state that is a near as possible to their
original condition.
HTH
--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@mesanetworks.net
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