Preserving home partition on install?

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Thu, 2008-04-24 at 00:00 -0700, Les wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 16:24 -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
> > Les Howell wrote:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > */Manuel Aróstegui <manuel at todo-linux.com>/* wrote:
> > > 
> > > 
> > >     On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 11:00 -0400, Mr.John wrote:
> > >      > Hello,
> > >      > I am currently running fedora, but want to reinstall from a live
> > >      > image. I have /home set up as a second ext3 partition. My question is
> > >      > will I be able to install fresh into / and keep my data on /home? I
> > >      > would like to continue using my user directory after the update if
> > >      > that is possible. Are there any important considerations, like not
> > >      > re-using the previous user name? I just don't want to find out too
> > >      > late that the installer blanks /home!
> > >      >
> > >      > Thanks,
> > >      > John
> > >      >
> > > 
> > >     During the install process you can specify what /home partition to use,
> > >     and whether you want to format it or not.
> > > 
> > >     Manuel.
> > > 
> > >     -- 
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> > > 
> > > I just installed F8, but didn't see that as an option, as a result I had 
> > > to reload the full home.  It took quite a while.  If that option is 
> > > available, it is not clear from the screens.
> > 
> > As someone else already said, you have to select the "custom disk
> > layout" option, specify which partition was /home and tell the system
> > to NOT format it.
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > - Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer                       rps2 at nerd.com -
> > - Hosting Consulting, Inc.                                           -
> > -                                                                    -
> > -   UNIX is actually quite user friendly.  The problem is that it's  -
> > -              just very picky of who its friends are!               -
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> That I saw.  It would be nice if the screen also mentioned that that was
> how to accomplish the non-formatting install.  There is plenty of room
> on the screen for the added comment.

Agreed. Every time I install Fedora (and that's since before it was even
called Fedora) I have to think twice when I look at that dialogue. It
really needs to say *exactly* what is going to happen when you press the
button, since a) it can't be undone) and b) the consequences of doing
something unexpected are serious. This is Human Interface Guidleines
101.

poc