I'd like to migrate from Ubuntu 12.10 to Mint 14, but it's important that I keep everything which is in my /home
directory. Will it work if I just put the directory on a USB stick, then replace the default one by ny old one after the install is complete (I'll use the same username/paaswd on the new install)?
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Mint is off-topic on this site. You might want to ask on Unix & Linux– Marco CeppiNov 27, 2012 at 21:27
3 Answers
I wouldn't do it. It will be safer to save your data & do a clean install. There's no guarantee that the config files will match & that could create conflicts.
My suggestion is to use cinnamon instead of migrating to mint
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/09/20/install-cinnamon-1-6-in-ubuntu-12-04-lts/
Cinnamon 1.6, the latest edition of the desktop environment whose development was partly inspired by popular dissatisfaction with Unity and GNOME 3 was released yesterday. It is a project from the developers of Linux Mint, a desktop distribution derived from Ubuntu.
As a Free Software desktop environment and project, you can install it on any distribution, provided there is a binary package for it. Without that, you can compile it from source, if doing business at the command-line does not scare you.
Ubuntu Cinnamon PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
Sure. I'd use something like tar (there are other options, rsync, cp, cpio):
cd /media/usb-stick/
tar -pcvzf home.$USER.tar.gz /home/$USER
To unpack on new computer:
cd /
tar -xvzf /media/usb-stick/home.$USER.tar.gz
If you have any permission problems after, do this:
# own everything in your home dir by you. This is usually safe/correct,
# unless you have some unusual permissions set up somewhere (like a directory
# for sharing files with other users on the system)
chown -R $USER:$USER ~
Some problems you may run into:
- Disk Space: make sure your usb stick has enough space
- File size too big: If your home directory has more than 2G of files, you might create a file too big for a fat32 usb-stick. Either format it ext3, tar up partial directories, copy in batches or use another method to archive things (rsync, network copy it, etc)
- if you don't use tar, and use cp or rsync, you need to copy to a unix filesystem, like ext3. Copying to a fat usb-disk without using tar will mess up permissions.
- dot files: make sure if you do partial directories, you don't forget all the files in your home directory that start with a dot (hidden).