2 distros with 1 /home [SOLVED]

[bigBuckets]

I'd like to dual boot LM9 Main, with Ubuntu Lucid. The question is, can they share a /home directory on a separate partition? Will the Package Manager see the applications in both distros?

I wouldn't mind solely updating in Mint and editing the menus as needed in Lucid if needed.

thanks!

[piratesmack]

It's possible.

I recommend using different usernames for each distro when sharing a /home partition. That way your settings for each distro will be stored in separate locations.

Will the Package Manager see the applications in both distros?

No, the /home folder doesn't contain any information about installed packages.

I wouldn't mind solely updating in Mint and editing the menus as needed in Lucid if needed.

Hmm... Sharing a /home wouldn't allow you to do that.

[bigBuckets]

Cool, thanks for the info. I forgot that apps are in the /usr directory?

Keeping the same username might be what I'm after in this case, I'd like my Firefox add-ons/bookmarks and Thunderbird messages to be sync'd in both distros.

[gn2]

Keeping the same username might be what I'm after in this case, I'd like my Firefox add-ons/bookmarks and Thunderbird messages to be sync'd in both distros.

If you use the same username for two distributions eventually you'll just end up with breakage.
You should be able to sync your Firefox and Thunderbird by copying your (hidden) Mozilla folders.

[piratesmack]

I think a symlink would work

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cd /home/USER2
mv .mozilla mozilla.bak
ln -s /home/USER1/.mozilla .mozilla

[Pierre]

I recommend using different usernames for each distro when sharing a /home partition. That way your settings for each distro will be stored in separate locations.

that's just what I do.
I found that one O/S would allow the 1st letter to be capitalized,
whilst the other O/S would only allow all lowercase.
this gave two user-name directories in /home - which was all that mattered anyway.

otherwise two unique user-names would work too.

when the time to upgrade a O/S comes, a simple rename of the user-name <directory>
and a re-install of the new O/S & new user-name sets the thing up again, for use.
then copy anything needed from the <renamed> user-name <directory> to the new user-name <directory>, & away I go.
Has worked well, for some time & a few upgrades.

However, things like mail from TBird, should be kept to just one O/S,
as sharing this info gets complicated.

[bigBuckets]

Thanks for replies everyone...

I had fresh installs so I wanted to see what would happen with the same username. I was bored, and I figured I'd learn something new -- yes, it definitely broke stuff. It turned my LM9 into some Lucid hybrid. I reinstalled both with unique usernames and all is well.

[bigBuckets]

One last question that came up...

At the root of the home partition I want to create Music and Video directories that are available to both Distros.
Since both distros have unique usernames, what owner and group can I set for the Music/Video directories so they'll be available to both distros?

is the following bad?

chown -R root:root /Video
chown -R root:root /Music

[piratesmack]

The following will give everybody read/write/execute permissions to a directory:

Code: Select all

sudo chmod 777 /home/shared

[SxFlare]

maybe have a partition with your data/music and (auto) mount it to one of your home subfolders when you log in?
I'm finding myself not bothering using separate home partitions and just a separate partition for data.

[markfiend]

maybe have a partition with your data/music and (auto) mount it to one of your home subfolders when you log in?

Yes that's what I do. I'm dual-booting Mint and Arch at the moment, sharing a /home partition and I have a separate data partition.

I have mark as my username on Mint and orac as my username on Arch. I have the fstab entries (different for each distro, obviously) mount the data partition to /home/mark/data when I'm in Mint and to /home/orac/data when I'm in Arch. No breakage has occurred so far...

[Intio]

Sounds as if everything worked out, but I though I'd plug the guys at mintcast.org since their latest episode dealt with this very issue.

[bigBuckets]

Excellent info, many thanks!