Home directory "moved" after reinstall--need help to correct

[jukingeo]

Hello all,

I have been out of the Linux loop for a while. Prior to the holidays I did something 'stupid' within Wine and ended up taking out my Ubuntu partition to the point where it wouldn't boot. Being that I have a triple boot system and I had plans for the holidays, I didn't want to risk a reinstall in the event that if something went wrong with Grub, it would render my whole system useless. So I waited until now to reinstall Ubuntu.

I performed the reinstall this past weekend and for the most part I thought everything went fine, but I noticed something was different with the file system and when I attempted to load a 3.5gig program into Ubuntu yesterday, I got an error message saying that I don't have enough disk space. I said to my self, "That is impossible as I have a 106gig partition for programs".

I have a separated system in which Ubuntu /root has an 8gig partition and the Home partition supposed to be the 106gig drive. I did this in the event I had to reinstall, I wouldn't loose my information. Well apparently something went wrong with the install and it appears that I have two Home folders...one is on the 106gig drive and the other is in the root directory. Making note of that explained why my program wouldn't load because the root partition is only 8gig.

So, my question is this:

Can I set Ubuntu back to the old Home directory, or do I have to reinstall once again?

As what under my avatar says, I am on Ubuntu Studio 8.04 (Hardy Heron). I stuck with this older version because it has long term support.

I have a triple boot system with Windows XP, Puppy Linux, and Ubuntu Studio. I have two SATA 500gig drives with the first drive being home to all the operating systems and programs. The second drive is just for data.

Here is my fdisk -l I put the partitions usage in parenthesis:

geo@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000cf364

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13376 107442688+ 7 HPFS/NTFS (Windows XP)
/dev/sda2 13377 21154 62476785 83 Linux (Puppy Linux)
/dev/sda3 21155 22026 7004340 83 Linux (Ubuntu Root)
/dev/sda4 22027 60801 311460187+ 5 Extended (Windows Storage)
/dev/sda5 22027 34977 104028876 83 Linux (this should be Home)
/dev/sda6 34978 48044 104960646 83 Linux (Linux File Storage)
/dev/sda7 48045 60265 98165151 b W95 FAT32 (Windows/Linux storage)
/dev/sda8 60266 60801 4305388+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0002f3c7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 14835 119162106 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 14836 29636 118889032+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb3 29637 44471 119162137+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb4 44472 60801 131170725 b W95 FAT32


Thank You,

Geo

[oldfred]

This is standard advice on how to move /home. Since you already have your home you can skip some steps. You will have to edit fstab with the correct data for your existing home.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/dmrcErrors

If you have multiple installs, I prefer /data so I can have the same data in every install.

Painless Linux Multi-boot Setup - see also comments
http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/08/painless-linux.html
oldfred's versions of blog
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1405490

[jukingeo]

This is standard advice on how to move /home. Since you already have your home you can skip some steps. You will have to edit fstab with the correct data for your existing home.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/dmrcErrors

If you have multiple installs, I prefer /data so I can have the same data in every install.

Painless Linux Multi-boot Setup - see also comments
http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/08/painless-linux.html
oldfred's versions of blog
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1405490

Hello,

Thank you for the information above. I have much reading to do, but I did 'browse through' the first link and the latter half mentions 'reassigning' your home directory and that is what I am after. I am hoping it does work because as it is right now, my Home directory is too small and I can't really add any large programs (how I discovered the problem in the first place).

Geo

[oldfred]

Programs are not installed in home just your settings. Your root looks smallish. I like root to be 10-20GB and I have used about 5GB in my root with many installed programs.

[jukingeo]

Programs are not installed in home just your settings. Your root looks smallish. I like root to be 10-20GB and I have used about 5GB in my root with many installed programs.

Back in the day (cue 2008 when I first started with Ubuntu), the "documented" procedure was to allot 4 to 5 gig for the root. The recommended was to go to 7 or 8. I went 7. Perhaps 10 might be better for a new version, BUT for me I am still on Hardy 8.04.

I was told the programs go in the HOME file and not the root. At any rate I did have separate root & home files when I initially installed Ubuntu. It was just that I had a problem and the root was 'blown out' I had to reinstall Ubuntu. Upon reinstallation I had noticed that a few things were wrong...or off. Investigating the problem I saw that the Home directory was moved and wasn't residing on the correct partition. So that is what I am trying to correct.

My home partition is 106gig BTW.

Geo

[jukingeo]

This is standard advice on how to move /home. Since you already have your home you can skip some steps. You will have to edit fstab with the correct data for your existing home.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/separatehome
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/dmrcErrors

If you have multiple installs, I prefer /data so I can have the same data in every install.

Painless Linux Multi-boot Setup - see also comments
http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/08/painless-linux.html
oldfred's versions of blog
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1405490


Hello,

Ok, I was pretty much following the procedure on the first link, but I couldn't make any progress, so what I decided to do was just do a reinstall once again, but this time I made sure I set the reinstall to "manual", this way it wouldn't bypass the partition selection (which is what it did the first time on the reinstall).

I made note of where the original root and home directories were and assigned them accordingly.

The installation went well and now the $Home directory is on the drive/partition it should be. Some of my programs were lost in the process though...mainly my games folder is gone and so is Open Office, but many of my other installs and my data is intact.

But before I declare this problem solved, a new issue presented itself. After signing in on boot up, I get this error message:

"$Home/.dmrc file is being ignored. ...File should be owned by user and have 644 permissions."

Anyone have any idea of what I should do to fix this? Supposedly the file supposed to control the language and other personal settings, but up to now what changes I have been making ARE being saved. At any rate, I know having an error message coming up like that upon boot up is not a good thing and I would rather correct the problem.

The thing is I can't even find this .dmrc file. So some assistance would be appreciated.

But the good news is I am almost there.

Thanx,

Geo

[oldfred]

The error seems pretty common with editing of home and that is why I included a link in post #2 on dmrc errors.

[jukingeo]

The error seems pretty common with editing of home and that is why I included a link in post #2 on dmrc errors.

Ooops! Kinda missed that one up there. Ok, I will check that out.

Thanx,

Geo

Edit:

Ok, that worked! Now before I labeled this as solved, I am missing most of the programs that I had under my "Games" listing. While pretty much most of my data is all intact, many of my programs such as Open Office and Evolution are gone too. Is there a way I can restore those all at once or do I have to re-install those manually?

Thanx,

Geo