Re: [PLUG] Sharing home directories between two distros

[Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net>]

Art Alexion wrote:

> eric@lucii.org wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Nov 18, 2004 at 08:01:51AM -0500, Art Alexion wrote:
> >  
> >
> >  
> >
> > > Meanwhile, temporary mounting for copying between distros is not 
> > > working right.  If I mount Ubuntu's root directory in Red Hat using 
> > > a simple
> > >
> > >   mount /dev/hdb2 /mnt/ubuntu
> > >
> > > I can read/write as user to my home directory in 
> > > /mnt/ubuntu/home/arthur.  But a corollary command in Ubuntu
> > >
> > >   mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/rh_homes
> > >
> > > will not permit a regular user to even view /mnt/rh_homes/arthur.
> > >
> > > Does this have anything to do with the fact that there is no root 
> > > user/password in Ubuntu -- instead uses sudo with regular user's 
> > > password?
> > >   
> >
> >  
> > I'm not sure about that because, until last week, I've never even 
> > *heard* of
> > a distro called "ubuntu" :-P
> >  
> It's Debian-based.  Don't know how it varies from Debian Sarge.
>
> > I'd try: sudo mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/rh_homes
> >
> > Also you will have to match the user and group IDs.
> > If you are uid 501 in RedHat then you must be 501 in ubuntu.
> >  
> >
> >  
> tried editing /etc/fstab by adding the line
>
> /dev/hdb1    /mnt/rh_homes    ext3    rw,user        0    1
>  
>
> then: sudo mount /mnt/rh_homes
>
> Still no access because, as you warned, I am UID 500 in Red Hat, and 
> UID 1000 in Ubuntu.  The inability to su or login as root has me 
> freaked out, though.  When I use the gui "Users & Groups" tool 
> [prompts for password before launching], and change my UID to 500, I 
> disappear from the Users list.  A menu item lets me display all users, 
> and there I am.  But it makes me nervous.
>
> I did it once before using Mandrake [which made me UID 501].  After 
> changing to UID 500, I closed the gui, and from the command line 
> issued the command
>
>    # chown 500:users -R /home/arthur
>
> Worked fine, but Ubuntu won't let me login as root, and I don't know 
> if I can do anything as a regular user that temporarily has no home 
> directory due to missing config files, etc. In other words, if I can't 
> log in as arthur, I can't sudo.
>
> The shell includes the regular su command, but it won't take my user 
> password as sudo does, and the installation program did not let me 
> pick a root password.
>
> I really appreciate the help you are giving me.
I just had another idea.  Move ~/.mozilla & ~/Documents to /home/common, 
Create a symlink in their original locations to point to the new 
locations, then create symlinks in Ubuntu to 
/mnt/rh_homes/common/.mozilla and Documents.

If I do, what should I change the ownership to in the common directory 
tree so that both user 500 and user 1000 can access the files.  Also, 
how can I insure that files saved to common by applications such as 
Mozilla and OpenOffice have the correct permissions by default?

--

_______________________________________
Art Alexion
Arthur S. Alexion LLC
arthur [at] alexion [dot] com
aim: aalexion
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