One /home/username shared amongst several Fedora instances using external HD

[Jeff Vian]

On Sat, 2004-09-18 at 20:49, Markus Huber wrote:
> CB schrieb:
> 
> > Sorry, yes, I meant mounting *as* /home/username, so not only my docs 
> > but also all the config  directories (/home/.*) get shared between the 
> > machines (not simultaneously, of course). Any idea why mounting an 
> > external drive as /home/username isn't possible?
> 
> Maybe it is possible. I suppose during installation Fedora has to 
> recognize the external disk so that it can get the mountpoint /home. If 
> that is possible, then there is no problem using an external drive as 
> /home directory.
> 
> What I am absolutely not sure about, if it is possible to change the 
> mountpoint /home on a running system. Somebody else have to help about that.
> 
> I am thinking of changing the /home directory to another partition, but 
> yet have not found a solution how to do it on a running system, so I 
> personally would be interested in expert answer on that as well.
> 
> Regards
> Markus
> 

His removable drive should work as long as the mount is delayed until
after the drivers are loaded.  Automount may be needed.

As far as the new partition for /home it is easy to do, as long as you
do not have users logged in and using /home. (if they are logged in some
of this may not work properly.) You would need to be logged in as root
to do this.

1. Mount the new partition somewhere (such as /newhome)/
2. transfer all files from /home to /newhome
You can use tar, or cp with the appropriate options for this.
3. verify everything was copied right and that everything is there.
4. after 3 is complete then empty the old home directory
	# rm -rf /home/*
5. edit /etc/fstab to mount the new partition on /home automatically at
startup.
6. unmount /newhome and remount it on /home.  (You may need to reboot if
users are logged in to the system.)