home dir to usb thx & some OT (long)

[Kurt Granroth]

To get your home directory onto the new computer, you'll effectively do 
the copy that you already did in reverse.  The steps will look like so:

1. Install Ubuntu on the new computer
2. Create a 'stormy' user on the new Ubuntu system.  It will create a 
/home/stormy directory
3. Login to the new computer as the 'stormy' user and open up a terminal 
window.  Run this command:

$ rsync -azvH /mnt/usb/ /home/stormy/

That should do it.  There *may* be issues related to group permissions 
and the like but probably not.  I wouldn't worry about it unless you do 
a directory listing afterwards and see that all of the groups are owned 
by some number like 101 or 500 or similar.

Also... don't get rid of your current/old system until you are SURE that 
your new system has everything that you want.  I've been known to keep 
FULL backups of my old systems for a year or two afterwards... just in 
case ;-)

On 12/31/09 6:21 PM, betty wrote:
> thank you kurt, et al, for the kind words of help, support.
> kurt , you did a good job of walking me through the precise way to copy
> the home dir to usb, and the reasons to use the different commands.
>
> I am copying it to the usb so that after a fresh install of ubuntu
> 8.04lts on a new computer i can use my same home dir&  settings, never
> did that before. When i get that far i guess i need to ask, ? where do i
> install it to????
>
> I have been on this list since 2000, i think. i am a grandma,&  a nurse.
> i started w/redhat years ago and always found the list people to be
> helpful since i am really only a gui user. But whenever i talk to
> someone about computers, i try to convince them that open source is the
> way to go and the way of the future. I try to preface my requests for
> help here with saying what i don't know, since almost everyone knows
> more than me on this list; that way people will be nice and give me
> careful advice, like you did.
>
> Sometimes it starts a list argument to ask a question about the way to
> perform something; like the dd vs, cp vs rsync and since i didn't know
> the in's and out's of each one it was impossible to decide who's answer
> was best for my situation.
>
> I think if i gave most members  here an i.v. start kit and a delivery
> kit and had to tell them how to start the i.v. on a laboring mom, then
> deliver the baby, they would appreciate having more detail to attention
> and social 'handholding'  through the procedure. (the patient would
> appreciate it too!)
>
> Linux is really the best thing out there, not expensive like apple and
> not nasty  and bulky like M$.  I like being a gui user because it shows
> that people outside the tech community can be users too, and isn't that
> what we want? (or is it [rhetorical]) ... just my thoughts.
>
> btw, what happened to der.hans?? he was always a promoter of helpful
> answers to even stupid questions.
>
>