UbiquityPreserveHome
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Launchpad Entry: ubiquity-preserve-home
Packages affected: ubiquity
WORK IN PROGRESS
Summary
Extend the installer to allow the user to install Ubuntu while preserving the /home directory.
Release Note
Ubuntu now supports installations that preserve the /home directory when it exists on the root partition.
Rationale
Along with being an often requested feature, this would allow users to perform what amounts to a repair install by installing Ubuntu over top of itself while preserving the /home directory.
Use Cases
- Joe installed Ubuntu and manipulated the settings and system files to the point where he wants to install Ubuntu again. He does not want to lose his documents and account settings.
- Bob has Ubuntu 6.04 installed, but wants to try Ubuntu 8.04. He does not want to have to upgrade multiple times or risk upgrading straight to 8.04.
Assumptions
Design
You can have subsections that better describe specific parts of the issue.
Implementation
This section should describe a plan of action (the "how") to implement the changes discussed. Could include subsections like:
UI Changes
Should cover changes required to the UI, or specific UI that is required to implement this
Code Changes
Code changes should include an overview of what needs to change, and in some cases even the specific details.
Migration
Include:
- data migration, if any
- redirects from old URLs to new ones, if any
- how users will be pointed to the new way of doing things, if necessary.
Test/Demo Plan
It's important that we are able to test new features, and demonstrate them to users. Use this section to describe a short plan that anybody can follow that demonstrates the feature is working. This can then be used during CD testing, and to show off after release.
This need not be added or completed until the specification is nearing beta.
Outstanding Issues
This should highlight any issues that should be addressed in further specifications, and not problems with the specification itself; since any specification with problems cannot be approved.
BoF agenda and discussion
remove: /bin /boot /dev /etc /lib /lib32 /lib64 /proc /sbin /usr /var /sys /initrd* /vmlinuz*
preserve: /home /srv /root
warning saying, "this filesystem already seems to have some contents on it. If you want to go ahead I'll remove everything execept user data, but I'll remove the following:" "There is no guarentee, and you should back up your data." Needs to be a debconf question so OEMs can preseed it.
If the username already exists in /home, check the ID of that directory and use the same id. oem-config does the same thing. We just need to preseed the uid. Check gid as well.
don't worry about /etc/skel, but check user-setup to make sure it doesn't break things in this regard.
make sure /home is not a regular file. Remove it if it exists. It could be a symlink, in which case remove it.
Ignore failures to remove a directory. EBUSY will be triggered if it's a mount point.
Adding an option to the autopartitioner to enable all this functionality. Needs to meet the requirements: swap, ext3.
Logic to remove directories would need to be duplicated into a check for disk space available. Documentation: what we're removing we're not touching /etc/skel