Can two distributions share the same /home partition?
bib...@gmx.net
I am planing to install on my new hd Suse AND Kubuntu Linux. I was
planing to make BOTH distribution share the same /home partition (I
will make a separate partition for /home and of course both they will
use KDE).
Is it possible?.
Bibinix
Barnacle Bill the Sailor
I think it can be done, if grub knows where each kernel is. I would
think you'd have the root of each on separate mount points. But aren't
there small incompatibilities that make sharing /home a bit dicey?
I mean Suse and Kubuntu each have custom versions of various otherwise
similar products, if anything varies in the way they save preference
data, well, ooops.
r.oel...@gmail.com
In theory they could share the same /home, but I believe you could run
into problems with conflicting versions of applications (like xmms,
gnome, etc) of the different distros trying to use the same
configuration stored settings usually writtent to hidden files in /
home/~ For example .xmms/, .evolution/, .whatever/ are hidden
folders in ~ that the associated apps write their config settings to.
Problems would arise if the two distros are using different versions
of such applications. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
Bit Twister
Only if release/patch level of kde is the same on both installs, and
you do not mind possible custom vendor kde changes popping in/out
and selections which may/maynot work under the other install. :(
I do not recommend it. I have /home under each vendor/release install but link
common dir/files to my common /accounts/$USER partition.
Small snippet from my admin diary for clean installs.
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.bash_profile
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.bash_logout
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.bashrc
ln -s /accounts/$USER/bin
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.thunderbird
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.mozilla
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.fullcircle
ln -s /accounts/$USER/work
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.cron
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.Xresources
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.Xdefaults
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.slrnrc
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.jnewsrc
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.jnewsrc.time
ln -s /local/bin/kde_shutdown $HOME/.kde/shutdown
ln -s $HOME/bin/startup $HOME/.kde/Autostart
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.kde/share/wallpapers/ $HOME/.kde/share
ln -s /accounts/$USER/.signature
J.O. Aho
Yes, it's possible, but not wise to do so, as you have two different
distributions which uses different file hierarchy, so the config file that is
saved in your ~/ (users home directory) will be okey for one distribution, but
may not work in the other, which in it's turn leads to that the application in
question won't work properly. You can also get trouble with different UID in
the distros, which can lead to that when using one distro you don't have
access to write in your home directory.
If you still want to go with it, create a slice (partition) for /home, when
you install the other distro, you select the same slice for /home. Now you
will have the same for both.
If you just need to access files from the other distros home, you could just
mount that slice to /mnt/home, that way you still have access to the files,
but unique configs for both distros.
Myself I have a file server on which I do have a common /home for all my
computers, but then I run the same GNU/Linux on them all and I have
centralized user auth and so to the server. This do save disk space, as you
don't need to assign space for /home on the other machines.
--
//Aho
noi ance
Sure why not. IMO, place /home on it's own partition maybe renamed as
/public. You can install however many distros to other partitions with
/home allocated on those partitions. Link /public to each /home,ie,
/home/public.
Need to change the file and user access permissions to /home/public or
change the UID and GID of each distro to be the same, like 100 and 1000.
It would be equivalent to NAS drives but on the same machine.
Moe Trin
<1184333745.9...@n60g2000hse.googlegroups.com>, beo...@ancients.net
wrote:
>On Jul 13, 6:30 am, bibi...@gmx.net wrote:
>> I am planing to install on my new hd Suse AND Kubuntu Linux. I was
>> planing to make BOTH distribution share the same /home partition (I
>> will make a separate partition for /home and of course both they will
>> use KDE).
>> Is it possible?.
Sure, but I don't use windoze^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H KDE.
-rw-rw-r-- 1 gferg ldp 6214 Aug 14 2002 Multi-Distro-Dev
-rw-rw-r-- 1 gferg ldp 18850 Mar 13 2000 MultiOS-HOWTO
>In theory they could share the same /home, but I believe you could run
>into problems with conflicting versions of applications (like xmms,
>gnome, etc) of the different distros trying to use the same
>configuration stored settings usually writtent to hidden files in /
>home/~ For example .xmms/, .evolution/, .whatever/ are hidden
>folders in ~ that the associated apps write their config settings to.
This _can_ be a problem, though I don't see it happening that often. A
similar problem arises if the application _package_ drops files that
are managed by the package manager. These files will rarely be
identical, and one package manager will complain that the file doesn't
look like it should.
>Problems would arise if the two distros are using different versions
>of such applications. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
It's a valid point, but there are ways around this - either by using
"global" settings for each distribution (global settings tend to live
in /etc/ rather than the home directories), or by using conditional
file settings (if $VERSION -eq $FOO ; then ) but both of these tend
to get messy, and presume a little expertise with the applications.
Generally, when evaluating a "new" distribution, I'll stick with
separate hardware, just to avoid these complications. If I like the
new one, then I'll copy my datas from the old ~/ directory (remember
than a simple '/bin/cp * $DESTINATION' purposely does not copy "hidden"
files and/or directories).
Old guy