[Discuss] Strategy for dual boot (two LINUX distros) to share most files on /home directory

[John Blomfield]

I solved this problem by storing all my common data on a separated 
partition called, for originality "data" :-) . Then I mount it on 
/home/john/data at start up, with the /etc/fstab file. This means all 
the configuration hidden files are located in the /home/john/ directory 
for what ever version of Linux I happen to be running. The problem is 
that configuration files such as for Thunderbird are in 
/home/john/.thunderbird directory, so I put the generic data in 
....../data/sys/thunderbird and make soft links to it in the 
/home/john/.thunderbird for each different Linux version. It works just 
fine but you have to remember to make the soft links each time you 
install a new Linux version.

John


On 06/22/2014 09:56 PM, Murray Strome wrote:
> I usually make my /home a separate partition. However, there are settings that I believe would be unique to a particular OS. In particular, if I have one setup for Ubuntu 14.04 and another for Zorin OS-8 (based on an earlier version of Ubuntu), I think I could have trouble using the samto e /home partition for both distributions as I believe that many of the settings files should be different.  That is why I was thinking of separate partitions for Ubuntu home, Zorin home, and then another partition in which I would have all my documents and the key settings for things like thunderbird and then create links to them from each of the distro directories.
>
> Or, if I could get away with having the same /home directory for both distros, of course that would be simpler.
> Murray
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "brendan" <brendan at ming.org>
> To: discuss at vlug.org
> Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2014 9:39:30 PM
> Subject: Re: [Discuss] Strategy for dual boot (two LINUX distros) to share most files on /home directory
>
> nowadays i always make my /home volume it's own partition. that way it's
> easy to fully reinstall the OS while retaining all data and application
> settings (which are generally stored in ~/.config/ nowadays).
>
> as long as you don't do hibernation, two different distros should play
> nice using the same /home volume.
>
> On 14-06-22 07:33 PM, Murray Strome wrote:
>> I would like to do some longer term comparisons between Ubuntu (or
>> XUbuntu) and Zorin OS. I plan to do a fresh install of both on a new
>> hard drive.  I have the /home directory backed up. I would like to set
>> things up so that the key settings (e.g. .thunderbird, .jpilot,
>> .mozilla and perhaps others) would be shared between them, as well as
>> all my documents.
>>
>> I am thinking that I could have a separate partition (e.g. call it
>> data) for all that kind of information, then in each of the distro's I
>> could make symbolic links to the appropriate files in the data partition.
>>
>> Has anyone done something like this? Is there a better way to do it?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Murray
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-- 
John Blomfield
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Old John B's Linux Notes http://www.oldjohnbslinux.wordpress.com