I upgraded from 11.10 to 12.04, and now my /home folders are empty

Question

Did i miss something? Isn't it supposed to keep your /home folders intact when you upgrade?

Is there some way to retrieve what was there?

It looks like everything is still there, but somehow hiden from me, as if i were logged in as a guest, which i am not, same login and password.
I'm unsure of what's wrong, but your assumption is correct; an upgrade should save all settings, programs, etc. It sounds like it thinks you are not the owner for some reason. Try entering id on a commandline; it should show a uid and gid of 1000. If so, maybe the original ids were changed for some reason. You can try entering ls -l (that's lowercase l, for long) in your home directory and see what it says for owner/group (3rd and 4th columns). Should have your name, not a number.

linuxk · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-04 01:53:46Z

Open up terminal type

cd /home/

ls -lFa

If something is hidden, -lFa option will display everything.

OR

Check /etc/passwd file by

cat /etc/passwd

find the line of your user name. In the same line of your user name, It will show /home/something that's the place your previous stuff is located.

Open up nautilus (File Manager) press

CTRL + L

type the location you found in /etc/passwd file

Ex

/home/previoisusername

Awesome. I was wrong, my user name was different. I can't find a way to login under my old user name, but i can just transfer the files over i guess. Thanks guys.
FYI, you can change password for old user though. login with your current user name, open up terminal $sudo su then #passwd oldusername

1 Answer