Sharing $HOME between Ubuntu, Debian and CentOS
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From: Ignoramus25832 on 5 Apr 2010 09:30 I would like to try several Linux distros to see if I like any one better than Ubuntu. I would have never thought about switching from Ubuntu, if not for bugs that Canonical does not want to fix. I would like to set up multiple boot on my laptop, booting Ubuntu, Debian Lenny and CentOS 5. I would like to know how much of a trouble will I have, with things like gnome settings, .mozilla directory, etc. I have a 500 GB disk and wanted to have 3-4 25 GB root partitions for every distro, 10 GB shared swap, and 390 GB or so /home partition. Any practical experience dual (or multi-) booting Linux will be appreciated. Thanks i
From: Bit Twister on 5 Apr 2010 09:58 On Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:30:28 -0500, Ignoramus25832 wrote: > > I would like to set up multiple boot on my laptop, booting Ubuntu, > Debian Lenny and CentOS 5. I would like to know how much of a trouble > will I have, with things like gnome settings, .mozilla directory, > etc. For starters, I recommend /home installed under / and not shared across distributions. Different distribution releases can have different UID/GID. Desktop managers can be different, not to mention applications. New desktop manager might munge configuration files in $HOME and old release might not run with new config files. For the UID/GID problem, I numbered all user accounts starting from 1500. I have a script to save id/passwords for new installs and to use with any distribution. http://groups.google.com/group/alt.os.linux.mandriva/msg/320ac28aeedc5649?dmode=source For thunderbird, I have separate user accounts for each email address. That keeps any malware confined just to that email address. Any browser usage also has it's own user account (bank, surfing, credit card, ISP,...) Third part apps like thunderbird and firefox in shared partition /local/opt That way I have the latest from the vendor and do not use the Distribution's copy. For common stuff shared across installs for $HOME, I link those back to a shared partition, /accounts/$USER. Some link snippets. ..bash_logout -> /accounts/bittwister/.bash_logout ..bashrc -> /accounts/bittwister/.bashrc lisp -> /accounts/bittwister/lisp local -> /accounts/bittwister/local mail -> /accounts/bittwister/mail ..signature -> /accounts/bittwister/.signature ..Skype -> /accounts/bittwister/.Skype ..Xresources -> /accounts/bittwister/.Xresources Other option to consider, use a virutal machine app like VirtuaBox. http://virtualbox.org/ I created a large partition and put the VM distributions for testing in there.
From: Ignoramus25832 on 5 Apr 2010 10:02 On 2010-04-05, Bit Twister <BitTwister(a)mouse-potato.com> wrote: > On Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:30:28 -0500, Ignoramus25832 wrote: >> >> I would like to set up multiple boot on my laptop, booting Ubuntu, >> Debian Lenny and CentOS 5. I would like to know how much of a trouble >> will I have, with things like gnome settings, .mozilla directory, >> etc. > > For starters, I recommend /home installed under / and not shared > across distributions. > > Different distribution releases can have different UID/GID. Desktop > managers can be different, not to mention applications. UID and GID I could take care of, I think. It is everything else that I am worried about. > New desktop manager might munge configuration files in $HOME and old > release might not run with new config files. > > For the UID/GID problem, I numbered all user accounts starting from 1500. > I have a script to save id/passwords for new installs and to use with > any distribution. > http://groups.google.com/group/alt.os.linux.mandriva/msg/320ac28aeedc5649?dmode=source > > For thunderbird, I have separate user accounts for each email address. > That keeps any malware confined just to that email address. > > Any browser usage also has it's own user account (bank, surfing, > credit card, ISP,...) > > Third part apps like thunderbird and firefox in shared partition /local/opt > That way I have the latest from the vendor and do not use the > Distribution's copy. > > > For common stuff shared across installs for $HOME, I link those back > to a shared partition, /accounts/$USER. > > Some link snippets. > .bash_logout -> /accounts/bittwister/.bash_logout > .bashrc -> /accounts/bittwister/.bashrc > lisp -> /accounts/bittwister/lisp > local -> /accounts/bittwister/local > mail -> /accounts/bittwister/mail > .signature -> /accounts/bittwister/.signature > .Skype -> /accounts/bittwister/.Skype > .Xresources -> /accounts/bittwister/.Xresources > > Other option to consider, use a virutal machine app like VirtuaBox. > http://virtualbox.org/ > > I created a large partition and put the VM distributions for testing in > there. Another thing that I could do, is have /home directory confined to every distro, and to have shared /data directory with movies and music. It would not be as elegant, but may be less troublesome. i
From: wisdomkiller & pain on 5 Apr 2010 09:55 Ignoramus25832 wrote: > I would like to try several Linux distros to see if I like any one > better than Ubuntu. I would have never thought about switching from > Ubuntu, if not for bugs that Canonical does not want to fix. > > I would like to set up multiple boot on my laptop, booting Ubuntu, > Debian Lenny and CentOS 5. I would like to know how much of a trouble > will I have, with things like gnome settings, .mozilla directory, > etc. > > I have a 500 GB disk and wanted to have 3-4 25 GB root partitions for > every distro, 10 GB shared swap, and 390 GB or so /home partition. > 10G swap is far too much. 2G would fully suffice. The rule "swap has to be double size of RAM" isn't applicable when you have more than 1G of RAM. If you use a 390G /home, it is strongly encouraged you partition it further - since the "." folders inside /home, which contain application settings and so on, should well be kept separated by distribution. There are different versions of gnome or kde and whatever else, so you'd better use one common partition where you keep things you want use for all distributions - like downloads, music ... Be careful with mail/news (you'd have to choose the same type of mailspool and comparable versions of your programs), with browser userfolders (firefox should be kept at the same version level across distros then) and whatever else I am missing. You may experiment by symlinking folders like ".virtualbox" and others to a common location/partition as well. But then, keep your UIDs consistent across partitions. > Any practical experience dual (or multi-) booting Linux will be > appreciated. > Still sticking with lilo here. It's easy to configure (even for raid) and does what it's intended for.
From: Anton Ertl on 5 Apr 2010 10:33
Ignoramus25832 <ignoramus25832(a)NOSPAM.25832.invalid> writes: >I would like to set up multiple boot on my laptop, booting Ubuntu, >Debian Lenny and CentOS 5. I would like to know how much of a trouble >will I have, with things like gnome settings, .mozilla directory, >etc. I have used the same home directory shared between distributions since forever (well, now and then I copied it to a new hard disk), without problems, but I typically switch only in one direction (i.e., I have a succession of distributions that I have used). But yes, gnome settings and .mozilla are the stuff that could be problematic. My experience is: - When switching from Debian Woody to Debian Lenny (a pretty big step), the Gnome settings of my mother were pretty much gone (useless or destroyed), and I had to set up her desktop from scratch again. Thank you, Gnome. - Upgrading has always worked for my .mozilla stuff, but I would not be so sure about downgrading (which could happen if you switch back and forth between distributions with different versions of Firefox (or whatever Mozilla applications you are using). I find the behaviour when running several instances of Iceape (Seamonkey) or Iceweasel (Firefox) on my machine less than optimal, and the contents of .mozilla are so bloated that they are not really amenable to good old-fashioned manual repair. So I would recommend making a backup of your home directory, especially the Gnome and Mozilla stuff before trying out a new distribution. >I have a 500 GB disk and wanted to have 3-4 25 GB root partitions for >every distro, 10 GB shared swap, and 390 GB or so /home partition. Sounds like a good plan. I also have a shared /usr/local, but if you don't install your own software, you don't need it. And if you do, it's more practical to make it just a link to /home/usr-local or somesuch. - anton -- M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed anton(a)mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html |