New installation - file manager not pointing to /home

[jerrywo]

So I installed 20.04.2 and used GPARTED to designate my solid state drive (with all my folders, files, etc) as /home and did not format it

Now it seems during the install, UBUNTU creates another /home folder with a bunch of empty folders (pictures, music, downloads, etc.)
In fact that empty home folder has a little "home" symbol on it

How do I make the UBUNTU file manager point to my actual folder?
A slight complication: That original filename had a typo - had my name as jerrryw instead of jerryw

Distro looks nice!

Jerry
Warrenton, VA

[CelticWarrior]

It's probably faster to reinstall it correctly.
Whenever you want to use a customized partitioning you must choose "something else" and select all the required partitions.
The installer can't guess that you want a separated /home. Bt default /home is under /, not a separated partition.

[oldfred]

Probably easier to reinstall, as Celtic Warrior suggests.
Just because you said in gparted which partition is /home, does not let installer know that.
And in the option in the installer to use /home (change button), DO NOT check the format box.

You can change the new default /home to your other /home partition.
To move /home uses rsync- Be sure to use parameters to preserve ownership & permissions
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Pa...ng/Home/Moving &
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread....7#post14010437

[Impavidus]

It sounds to me – but I might misunderstand your post – that you installed Ubuntu 20.04 and wanted to keep your /home partition from your previous install. However, you made a typo in either your original or your new username, so the names are different. The result would be that the /home partition contains two directories, one with the old, one with the new username: /home/jerryw and /home/jerrryw. Both would have the same owner.

If this is indeed the case, it's simple to solve. Best to do this from a live disk or in recovery mode, so you're not logged in as you fix it. Rename the new directory to some temporary name, rename the old directory to the original name of the new directory, then log in. If it all works, delete the new directory (that now has the temporary name).

[jerrywo]

Thanks to all who replied - I've been wrestling with printers over the last two days (I won!).

So when I do a fresh install and wish to retain my /home from the previous OS - I designated that partition as /home - yet the
Ubuntu install created another /home partition. I'm having some headaches with hidden folders...but oldfred, do I, when using
Gparted mark that drive to be /home and then hit the "change button". Do I have that right?

Does that keep the installer from creating another /home folder?

Jerry

[CelticWarrior]

Thanks to all who replied - I've been wrestling with printers over the last two days (I won!).

So when I do a fresh install and wish to retain my /home from the previous OS - I designated that partition as /home - yet the
Ubuntu install created another /home partition. I'm having some headaches with hidden folders...but oldfred, do I, when using
Gparted mark that drive to be /home and then hit the "change button". Do I have that right?

Does that keep the installer from creating another /home folder?

Jerry

No, you're still not understanding that what you do in GParted is irrelevant for the installer. Please read again post #2. You can partition in advance but then you CAN'T use the automated install, you MUST choose "something else" and MANUALLY select all the required partitions including, if applicable, a preexisting EFI System Partition. That is: (If applicable) select the ESP as "EFI", then create and select the root partition using any unallocated space, as "root" (/) and with EXT4 file system (can be others but they aren't recommended at your level), tick format (or not, if new and blank it doesn't matter, then finally select your previously defined /home as /home (format or not is now up to you; DON'T format if /home is being "recycled" from a previous installation, obviously).

The installer does not and cannot know what you want to do. It won't touch or use other partitions unless you explicitly tell it to, with the exceptions of the special ESP for obvious reasons and any previous swap partition (not needed currently as Ubuntu has been using swapfiles for years) will be used as well.

[oldfred]

Found this older Something Else for Mate flavor.
It shows using Something Else to select / and then another screen shot showing selecting /home.
Different flavors & newer versions may look slightly different, but are the same otherwise.

You can partition during install, but if partitions exist, you have to use Something Else and then for each partition choose the change button.
Be sure you select correct partition. Once I created two new partitions one smaller for / and one larger for /home, but then reversed that when using Something Else.

https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/inst...lse-method/651

[jerrywo]

Thanks Celtic Warrior, and others

I did use "something else" and had the following in Gparted:
sda
sda1 ext4 /home 1000203 GB no format

sdb
sdb1 bios/grub 9999GB
sdb2 efi 9999GB
sdb3 ext4 / 299999 format
sdb4 swap

I had installed a new 1TB solid state drive and wanted to dedicate that for my /home folder

Somewhere along the line, sdb became the home of my "boot" folder.

Times have changed - I got a low space alarm on / (root) because of software I down-loaded (kiCAD)
and took the opportunity to do a clean install

Am I, or rather was I, on the right track?

Once the install was done, I found a new /home with a half dozen empty folders.

Jerry

[yancek]

Am I, or rather was I, on the right track?

No. As pointed out above (in 2 separate posts) what you set using GParted is irrelevant. You need to use the manual option (Something Else) and select the partition you want for /home in the installer Installation Type window. Select NOT to format there.

sdb1 bios/grub 9999GB
sdb2 efi 9999GB

You don't need BOTH a bios-grub partition and an EFI partition, you only want one. The size of an EFI partition is generally around 200MB, sometimes as large as 500MB but no more than that should ever be necesasry. You should have a / filesystem partition of 20-30GB.

[ajgreeny]

It is just possible that if your username is the same as the original /home partition user, (and I am not sure if that is now the case or not), and that partition still contains all the files and folders that it did before, that you may be able to reset the /home partition back where you wanted it, ie, as /home in your new system.

Show us the content of /etc/fstab and also the output of sudo blkid with command

cat /etc/fstab
sudo blkid

No promises, and make sure you backup fstab before doing anything but knowing the UUID of your old /home partition it may be possible to edit fstab and add appropriate lines like this but using your UUID of course for the old home

# /home from bionic mounted at installation.
UUID=0cd847e0-572c-459d-8429-154cac24f4fb /home	ext4	defaults	0	1

to ensure that it mounts as /home at boot.
You can check any edits you make to fstab by immediately running

sudo mount -a

after saving the new fstab version; if there are no errors the partition should now be mounted as you /home partition; if errors are shown restore the backup you just made.