Ubuntu and I don't know what I am doing

[carmen617]

Referral client dropped off a Ubuntu 18.4 machine with a forgotten password. The thing is a mess (seriously, physically filthy old Dell with broken keyboard and a battery that falls out). I tried to reset the password following online instructions and messed up the Linux install. The client is actually trying to help his brother in law, who had a stroke (thus forgotten password), and can't handle any change, so needs keep things as much like they are as possible.

I booted with an 18.4 live drive and poked around, data all fine. Opened the system up and saw it had two drives, a smaller SSD for the OS and a larger spinner where all the data lives. So, easy peasy, took out spinner to be sure not to touch it and reinstalled their flavor of Ubuntu onto the SSD. However, I really don't know my ass from my elbow here - now I need to set the home folder to be the spinner, and I don't know what I am doing. Googling it brings up a ton of options, most of which assume I am starting with a clean install and partitioning, etc. Just wondering if anybody out there knows their way around Ubuntu or Linux and can tell me an easy set of commands to figure out what the home folder on the spinner's address is, and how to tell Ubuntu to use that as the home folder rather than the empty home folder on the SSD.

Thanks!

 

[Philippe]

Try to mount the spinner to the home folder.
>sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /home
Where /dev/sdb1 is the spinner (=device/sata/second drive/first partition) and /home is the home folder.
Check if it auto mounts on reboot.

 

[carmen617]

Try to mount the spinner to the home folder.
>sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /home
Where /dev/sdb1 is the spinner (=device/sata/second drive/first partition) and /home is the home folder.
Check if it auto mounts on reboot.

Thanks, that mounted it once but it didn't stick for the restart. Any way to make that happen?

 

[phaZed]

Have a read here for the various ways - I usually just use the GUI automount in 'Disks':

How to mount a new drive on startup

I have recently installed a new hard drive to my Ubuntu 10.0.4 box. I used System -> Administration -> Disk Utils to format the disk (ext4 file type) - but did not create a partition (is this advis...

askubuntu.com

 

[carmen617]

About 1/3 of the way down the first page of your link I see this

WARNING: THIS WILL DESTROY ANY DATA ON YOUR TARGET DISK​

There are two drives in the system right now. One (the SSD) has a clean install of Ubuntu on it and the user data is empty. The other, the spinner, has all the client's user data on it. I want to know if there is an easy way to point the SSD to read the client's existing user data on the spinning drive. Obviously the system was set up to do this in the first place, but I don't want to wipe the spinner. I just need to find the series of commands to tell the fresh Ubuntu install to look for user data in a different location than the default location on the existing drive. I know how to do this in Windows, and on a Mac. And, since everything I see about installing Linux says things like keep your user data and your OS on different partitions so you don't lose your data if you have to reinstall your OS, there must be a way. I just can't seem to find it through searching, and hoped someone here would have some insight.

 

[phaZed]

About 1/3 of the way down the first page of your link I see this

WARNING: THIS WILL DESTROY ANY DATA ON YOUR TARGET DISK​

There are two drives in the system right now. One (the SSD) has a clean install of Ubuntu on it and the user data is empty. The other, the spinner, has all the client's user data on it. I want to know if there is an easy way to point the SSD to read the client's existing user data on the spinning drive. Obviously the system was set up to do this in the first place, but I don't want to wipe the spinner. I just need to find the series of commands to tell the fresh Ubuntu install to look for user data in a different location than the default location on the existing drive. I know how to do this in Windows, and on a Mac. And, since everything I see about installing Linux says things like keep your user data and your OS on different partitions so you don't lose your data if you have to reinstall your OS, there must be a way. I just can't seem to find it through searching, and hoped someone here would have some insight.

Yes, but the sentence directly preceeding says:

"First of all your /dev/sdb isn't partitioned. I am assuming this is the disk you want to mount." - so the warning only pertains to formatting the drive.

Use the GUI, it'll just mount as expected. Mounting and attempting to mount drives doesn't erase them.

 

[carmen617]

Yes, but the sentence directly preceeding says:

"First of all your /dev/sdb isn't partitioned. I am assuming this is the disk you want to mount." - so the warning only pertains to formatting the drive.

Use the GUI, it'll just mount as expected. Mounting and attempting to mount drives doesn't erase them.

Is it possible for you to cut and paste the relevant instructions from the link into a reply? I really can't stress enough how little I know about working in Linux. Thanks!

 

[frase]

Not being an arse, though if you dont understand how to do it; dont not go any further. Pass on this job and further your knowledge of how to use Linux/Unbuntu. As it sounds like it will come back to bite you, as the customer is very succinct in how they do not like change.

 

[carmen617]

Not being an arse, though if you dont understand how to do it; dont not go any further. Pass on this job and further your knowledge of how to use Linux/Unbuntu. As it sounds like it will come back to bite you, as the customer is very succinct in how they do not like change.

Too late to pass on the job - it's 90% done. The original ask was just to see if I could get past the lost password to recover the data, which has been fulfilled. Trying to get the system back up and running properly is a bonus. My customer and the owner are two different people - my customer just wants to have his brother in law's data recovered safely, and then replace the system. The owner, who is a stroke victim, is the one who doesn't want change. He also forgot his password and was unable to use the system for who knows how long. It was over a month from the time I was first approached about this job to when the system was dropped off - I'm not even sure the owner will ever actually look at the system again.

I've been doing tech support for 30 years in my area, and this is only the second time anybody has asked me to do anything with Linux. I'm not about to become an expert on it. Just trying to deliver more than promised, and the completionist in me wants to find the way to get it done.

 

[phaZed]

It's literally the picture part, lol. Just use that.

 

[Markverhyden]

I've been doing tech support for 30 years in my area, and this is only the second time anybody has asked me to do anything with Linux.

That's because it isn't used by the vast majority of residential and home office for actual computers. It's in all kinds of appliances but thats handled by the appliance OEMs.

And to be clear in @phaZed post the "sudo gnome-disks" is typed into a terminal window. After you hit enter it'll prompt you for a password. That password is for the account you are logged into.