what and where is /home?

[pjstock]

OK I am not completely nuts but I feel like I am going nuts. Even thought I have installed Ubuntu many times, each time I feel like a rookie and so I'll post this under "New To Ubuntu"

I just (after a bit of a struggle, much of it self-inflicted) have managed to install 18.04 LTS on a new system.

I went GREAT pains (I thought) to not make the error I had made on previous installations, of having / (system files I believe) on the same partition as /home (personal files generated by the system but not critical to the system running.)

I also tried to spec a bigger / partition (30gb) as for some reason I had gotten into space problems on earlier setups.

I thought I had put /home on a separate 140gb partition. which should have been ample room for me to blunder around in.

so, first step in migrating from old system to new was to copy the old /home files and folders (some7.5gb) to what I THOUGHT was the new system /home.
Here's the partition structure:

Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048    206847    204800   100M EFI System
/dev/sda2     206848    468991    262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda3     468992 145876991 145408000  69.3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4  145876992 204470271  58593280    28G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda6  204470272 488396799 283926528 135.4G Linux filesystem

but on completing the file copy I seem to only have 13gb free space under /home.

am I confusing two locations?
but "stuff" (like my old desktop items) appear on my new desktop.

But on the 145GB partition I intended to be for /home, there is a home-like structure but nothing in those folders.

i'm confused. what is going on? what am I not getting?

Peter

[mitesh.agrwl]

please post the output of $ mount and $ ls /

[pjstock]

peter@peter-OptiPlex-990:~$ mount
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=4030884k,nr_inodes=1007721,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=812232k,mode=755)
/dev/sda4 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/unified type cgroup2 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nsdelegate)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,name=systemd)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
efivarfs on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/rdma type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,rdma)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/pids type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hugetlb)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=35,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=18840)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime,pagesize=2M)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,relatime)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
tracefs on /sys/kernel/debug/tracing type tracefs (rw,relatime)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-logs_37.snap on /snap/gnome-logs/37 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/canonical-livepatch_50.snap on /snap/canonical-livepatch/50 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-system-monitor_51.snap on /snap/gnome-system-monitor/51 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core_4917.snap on /snap/core/4917 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gtk-common-themes_319.snap on /snap/gtk-common-themes/319 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-26-1604_70.snap on /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/70 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-calculator_180.snap on /snap/gnome-calculator/180 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-characters_103.snap on /snap/gnome-characters/103 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/dev/sda1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=812228k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000)
tmpfs on /run/snapd/ns type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=812232k,mode=755)
nsfs on /run/snapd/ns/canonical-livepatch.mnt type nsfs (rw)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/peter/Seagate Expansion Drive type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096,uhelper=udisks2)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/chromium_509.snap on /snap/chromium/509 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/peter/IDE 250Gb A type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core_5742.snap on /snap/core/5742 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-characters_139.snap on /snap/gnome-characters/139 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-system-monitor_57.snap on /snap/gnome-system-monitor/57 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-calculator_260.snap on /snap/gnome-calculator/260 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-logs_45.snap on /snap/gnome-logs/45 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gtk-common-themes_818.snap on /snap/gtk-common-themes/818 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-26-1604_74.snap on /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/74 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/dev/sda6 on /media/peter/968e3886-26ad-49c8-8502-ebc193af88e2 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks2)
peter@peter-OptiPlex-990:~$ ls /
bin    dev   initrd.img      lib64       mnt   root  snap      sys  var
boot   etc   initrd.img.old  lost+found  opt   run   srv       tmp  vmlinuz
cdrom  home  lib             media       proc  sbin  swapfile  usr
peter@peter-OptiPlex-990:~$

[mitesh.agrwl]

peter@peter-OptiPlex-990:~$ mount
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=4030884k,nr_inodes=1007721,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=812232k,mode=755)
/dev/sda4 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/unified type cgroup2 (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,nsdelegate)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,name=systemd)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
efivarfs on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/rdma type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,rdma)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/pids type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hugetlb)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=35,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct,pipe_ino=18840)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime,pagesize=2M)
configfs on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw,relatime)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
tracefs on /sys/kernel/debug/tracing type tracefs (rw,relatime)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-logs_37.snap on /snap/gnome-logs/37 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/canonical-livepatch_50.snap on /snap/canonical-livepatch/50 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-system-monitor_51.snap on /snap/gnome-system-monitor/51 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core_4917.snap on /snap/core/4917 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gtk-common-themes_319.snap on /snap/gtk-common-themes/319 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-26-1604_70.snap on /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/70 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-calculator_180.snap on /snap/gnome-calculator/180 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-characters_103.snap on /snap/gnome-characters/103 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/dev/sda1 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=812228k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000)
tmpfs on /run/snapd/ns type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=812232k,mode=755)
nsfs on /run/snapd/ns/canonical-livepatch.mnt type nsfs (rw)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/peter/Seagate Expansion Drive type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096,uhelper=udisks2)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/chromium_509.snap on /snap/chromium/509 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/peter/IDE 250Gb A type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/core_5742.snap on /snap/core/5742 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-characters_139.snap on /snap/gnome-characters/139 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-system-monitor_57.snap on /snap/gnome-system-monitor/57 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-calculator_260.snap on /snap/gnome-calculator/260 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-logs_45.snap on /snap/gnome-logs/45 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gtk-common-themes_818.snap on /snap/gtk-common-themes/818 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/var/lib/snapd/snaps/gnome-3-26-1604_74.snap on /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/74 type squashfs (ro,nodev,relatime,x-gdu.hide)
/dev/sda6 on /media/peter/968e3886-26ad-49c8-8502-ebc193af88e2 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks2)
peter@peter-OptiPlex-990:~$ ls /
bin    dev   initrd.img      lib64       mnt   root  snap      sys  var
boot   etc   initrd.img.old  lost+found  opt   run   srv       tmp  vmlinuz
cdrom  home  lib             media       proc  sbin  swapfile  usr
peter@peter-OptiPlex-990:~$

Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048    206847    204800   100M EFI System
/dev/sda2     206848    468991    262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda3     468992 145876991 145408000  69.3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4  145876992 204470271  58593280    28G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda6  204470272 488396799 283926528 135.4G Linux filesystem

The comparision between the two output shows that /dev/sda6 i.e. 136 GB partition has not been used for home folder. It is mounted as data folder in which 'peter' home folder has been created either manually or by copying. The 'actual' home folder which is used for users in linux is on /dev/sda4 i.e. 28 GB / (root) partition.

You need to mount /dev/sda6 on /home but as user has been created and data is there so wait for some more experienced user answer for working solution.

[pjstock]

I think I know what happened. (funny the things that come to you when asleep.)

I originally (accidentally) installed Ubuntu from a USB stick in LIve Boot mode but under "Legacy" mode on my system.
for that install I specified sda6 as /home. That would have created those default /home folders.
But a Legacy install messed everything up as I wanted a dual boot setup with WIndows 7 but WIndows was a UEFI installation. So the two were not cooperating.

the solution was to Live Boot from the USB stick in UEFI mode and reinstall. for that 2nd install I must have forgotten (or not known) that I had to RE-specify sda6 as /home. and so /home defaulted to root

I have not used the new setup yet. I could just Re-Re-install and correctly spec the /home partition.

or, if there is an easy way to move /home to the 136GB partition I would do that.

[Impavidus]

You basically want to migrate your /home directory to a separate partition. See this guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Pa...ng/Home/Moving

Note that on a few occasions that guide instructs you to run

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Running gedit with sudo isn't really best practice. Better replace it with

sudo -H gedit /etc/fstab

or use a terminal based text editor.