Re: LUG: Keeping the same username on a clean install? - Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:03:33 -0500

Subject : Re: LUG: Keeping the same username on a clean install?

From : Brian Cottingham <spiffytech@gmail.[redacted]>

Date : Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:03:33 -0500

When you say "last time I tried a clean install", do you mean moving to
9.04? On Saturday I performed a clean install with 9.10, preserving my
home directory, without encountering that bug. Interestingly, my old/new
Ubuntu used different UIDs, so I had to chown /home/brian, but otherwise
things went swimmingly.

I have done this many times on many distros and versions, and haven't
had an issue. My recommendation is to just try the 9.10 installer and
see if it works for you.

If it doesn't, rather than the method you described below, I'd recommend
renaming /home/jpgoel to /home/jpgoel_real so as not to trigger the bug,
then finish the install. On first boot, before logging in, Ctrl-Alt-F1,
mv /home/jpgoel /home/jpgoel_new; mv /home/jpgoel_real /home/jpgoel and
try to log in. That should do the trick.

-Brian

On 11/01/2009 08:55 PM, Jay Goel wrote:
> I want to upgrade to the latest Ubuntu.
>
> I don't want to do a dist-upgrade, because I did that last time, and I
> always feel like an "upgraded" install (on top of another upgraded
> install) is more error-prone than a clean install.
>
> So I want to install from the CD. I have 4 partitions:
>
> swap
> /boot
> /home
> /
>
> In theory, I should be able to do a clean install and reformat swap,
> /boot, and /. The installer ought to be able to leave my /home
> partition in tact.
>
> But last time I tried a clean install, this didn't work. The specific
> problem is that when I choose the username during the installation
> process (jpgoel), the ubuntu installer crashes because there is
> already a "/home/jpgoel" folder on my /home partition.
>
> Many have experienced this bug:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/258603
>
> So my question is: how can I do a clean install and keep the same
> username?
>
> I guess I could create a new username on install, and then do some
> "usermod" magic to change my home directory and username to match my
> old one. I'd rather not do this, because it seems kinda error-prone,
> and I'll have to reset all sorts of file permissions, etc. Does anyone
> know if the above bug has been fixed?
>
> Would appreciate any advice! Thanks!
>
> Jay