How do I use the separate home partition I had after a new install

When I first installed endeavor I partitioned my things separately, such that my home has a separate partition. Recently I had some issues and reinstalled the os and was wondering how can I set as the default my separate home partition. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Wait! What? Did you install on top of the old /home partition or beside it?

If you reinstalled on top of the old one without choosing to use it for the new install, well, Iā€™m sorry to sayā€¦ :people_hugging:

However, if you installed it beside it without formating, then either you should see your settings (i.e. if you used the same DE) OR you may have to reinstall again, but this time select your old /home as your new /home.

why?!? just edit the /etc/fstab to use the right partition as home

Thatā€™s why I said ā€œmayā€. I ainā€™t no expert lol :sweat_smile:

Could you walk me through that please?

I assume by editing the /home line in the etc/fstab file, one would need to first know the UUID of the old /home partition.

A visual way to find this out is to use gnome-disk-utility or a similar tool like partitionmanager on KDE or gparted.

From gnome-disk-utility:

  1. Select your HDD/SSD
  2. Select the old /home partition
  3. Select and copy the UUID to the clipboard

With root privileges

  1. Navigate to and open the ā€œfstabā€ file located at etc/fstab

  2. Locate the line that has /home ā† A UUID will be in front of it

  3. Remove the current UUID and replace it with the one from your clipboard, i.e. your old /home

  4. Save the etc/fstab file

  5. Open your file manager and check to see if your old /home is now your new /home

If not,

  1. Open up a terminal run sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
  2. Logout and log back in and give it another check
  3. Reboot

Is this correct @ricklinux ?

If not, Iā€™ll delete this right away. :man_shrugging:t5:

Soā€¦ you have

  • a new install with home inside the root partition
  • the old /home partition

and you want to start using the old /home partition instead of the new home.

Right?
If not, please clarify.

Hi. Would my method work? Asking for myself. :sweat_smile:

Iā€™m not using gnome-disk-utility but I assume it shows the UUID.
So your method is on the right track.

Some minor additions come to mind:

  • the file to edit is /etc/fstab
  • the ā€œnewā€ and now unnecessary /home folder should be cleared of existing files (also the dotfiles!) and subfolders before mounting the old home to it
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Yay! No pun intendedā€¦ Iā€™m learning! :partying_face:

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Note also that grub.cfg needs not be re-createdā€¦ :wink:

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Yes thatā€™s exactly right.

I had a feeling it didnā€™t, but I was trying to check all my boxes :sweat_smile:

This is a great way to learn. Especially if trying the commands on a spare machine, or in a virtual machine. Every little detail counts. :wink:

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Another terminal centric method (among many) is:

  • run lsblk -f to see the UUID of the old /home partition
  • edit /etc/fstab (e.g. with sudo nano /etc/fstab) and replace the UUID of the /home definition
  • delete all files and subfolders in the unnecessary /home folder, including file names starting with a dot. This leaves an empty /home folder.
  • reboot

Note: be sure to delete files and folders in the correct /home folder.

My /etc/fstab doesnā€™t have a home type thing, should I add one myself? If so what should i write at the ā€œdefaults,noatimeā€¦ā€ section thing

Yes, since your new installation did not have it.
You can look at what man fstab says.

Basically not much needs to be added, but check the needed filesystem type with
lsblk -f.

Why? ā€¦ :wink:

No, it is not needed. The bootloader does not need to know all partitions in FS. Just /, /boot (if exists), and the $ESP (if exists).

Edit: I am still unfocused! :rofl:

If the file system is the same as / partition (i.e. ext4), use the same flags, but the numbers at the end of the line should be different ( 0 2 for /home)

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