Re: A-posteriori use of another HDD for the /home/username
On Dec 25, 2009, at 3:20 PM, Merciadri Luca wrote:
> I re-tried exactly the same thing, but with the same contents on both
> HDDs (proved with a diff). I had to use
>
> # cp --recursive --update .[a-zA-Z0-9]* /mnt/mymnttosdc5
I believe this would copy all files beginning with a '.', followed by one of the characters in the [...], followed by anything into the directory /mnt/mymnttosdc5. Any matching directories would be copied, and all their contents whether matching or not. And any file with the same name as the one being copied that already existed in /mnt/mymnttosdc5 would be over-written only if the one to be copied was newer.
'cp -a --update .* /mnt/mymnttosdc5' would be similar, but in addition, the timestamps, permissions, and ownerships would be preserved.
> No success, as the interface was nearly the same as the one you
> hhhave when you have just installed Debian. My icons are here, etc.,
> but my wallpaper is the Debian's one, menus are mere menus, without
> everything that I configured, etc.
>
> Why?
I don't know.
It's possible that in your copying, something got bent -- a file permission or a name.
It's remotely possible that something was set up using a strong link instead of a symlink -- strong links won't work across filesystems.
Most likely, of course, is that it's something completely different, and we're all in for a wonderful surprise :-)
> If the only way to make it is to use the symlink, no problem, but the
> `cd'-related question still remains...
My belief is that a symlink is to be used when you want to refer to a single file or filesystem from more than one place or by more than one name. If you're wanting to use a newly added disk or partition to replace a directory, 'mount' is the best way to do that. (As best I can tell, this last is what you're trying to accomplish.)
And something's *got* to be broken for cd not to work...
My understanding of your situation is:
You have 3 disks: /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, and /dev/sdc.
sda is the disk that boots and is the disk with the / filesystem on it. And the /home dir, and your current home directory /mnt/merciadriluca.
I have no idea what sdb is, but as long as one of its partitions isn't mounted on /home/merciadriluca, it can be ignored for now.
sdc is a disk newly added to your system. You want its partition, sdc5, to be your home directory, /home/merciadriluca.
And you want the new home dir to be an exact clone of the existing one.
Is this correct?
If not, tell me what I've assumed wrong. And enclose a copy of /etc/fstab and the outputs of 'df -h', 'fdisk -l /dev/sda', 'fdisk -l /dev/sdb', and 'fdisk -l /dev/sdc'.
Sorry if I seem plodding or patronizing. I'm just trying to make sure the problem I'm trying to solve is actually the one that exists :-)
--
Glenn English
ghe@slsware.com
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